Fulford Ings

I had a walk along the banks of the river Ouse at Fulford Ings, on the south side of York. The Tansy beetles are mostly paired up now and there are a few clusters of eggs appearing. Eggs are not always laid on tansy. One beetle will eat another’s eggs, so they often lay them on a different plant, where they are safer from predation. The down side is that the emerging larvae have to find a tansy plant to feed on – they have a few days to do so before they starve to death!

I found a beetle on one of the clumps of tansy which we planted last summer, which was great to see. Bizarrely, British Tansy beetles don’t fly, although continental ones do! Ours disperse by walking between clumps of tansy which seems rather ridiculous. They can’t cover more than 100m, so are slow to occupy new habitat.

A pair of Tansy beetles

Tansy beetle eggs on a tansy leaf

As well as the Tansy beetles I found a few other insects – nothing rare, but they’re always interesting. It was a windy day and not good for macro photography, but I had to have a go.


Green-veined White (Pieris napi)

Green Nettle Weevil (Phyllobius pomaceus)

Alder Fly (Sialis lutaria)

Seven-spot Ladybird (Coccinella septempunctata)

The invasive alien Harlequin ladybird has been the most common species here for several years now, so I was pleased to see only our native seven-spot ladybird here today.

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