Today (June 9th) Dr Mark Telfer visited the farm to survey the Scarlet Malachite Beetles - sadly the show was just about over for this year - we only found two beetles and so he was unable to carry out his simple mapping survey to look for correlation between the location of the beetles and proximity to thatched roofs. There is a theory that thatch is an important factor in the life cycle of the beetle - further investigation will have to wait until next year.
As there were so few SMBs to study Mark kindly took us on a nature walk around the farm looking for Beetles. Quite a few interesting ones turned up but most notable for me was the Tortoise Beetle (Cassida murraea) that was found on some giant Inula plants we have growing near the Cottage. This species was a first for Mark, although the beetle is not a rarity.
You can see how it gets it's name - it's quite a neat beetle, about the same size as a ladybird but different enough not to be confused with them.
The larvae were also present - 
quite a few of them. They are strange little things - exactly the same green colour as the leaves they feed on but easy to find because of their strange habit of carrying their left-over skins from moulting on their backs. These old skins are impaled on tail spike and enhanced by the mixing in of a bit of Beetle poo. Apparently the blend of dead skin and poo does not appeal to birds and other predators so the larvae get left to carry on with their munching business.
Mark also found a tiny beetle while in the area of our Dove Cote - this was a type he was totally unfamiliar with so it has gone away to be indentified - it may be one that is often associated with bird roosts - if it turns out to be interesting I'll let you know.
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