A warm, mostly overcast day with some sunny spells, +26° C. Been to TsAGI forest (a woodland in Zhukovsky I’ve never surveyed before for some unknown reason). Turned out to be an excellent location!
Sooty Copper (Lycaena tityrus) is the rarest of the four Copper butterfly species I’ve found in Zhukovsky so far:
The Scarce Copper (Lycaena virgaureae) is the commonest. Numerous males I’ve seen today were all battered, while this female was in mint condition:
The Blue butterflies I’ve seen today were all Common Blues (Polyommatus icarus), or so I thought. However, while editing photos, I’ve noticed this female lacked the spot in the discal cell on forewing underside. Could it be an aberrant P. icarus or, in fact, P. thersites? I’ll ask people who know this pair better. The latter species is so far only known from the very south of Moscow region, but with current climate warming — who knows?
Small Coppers (Lycaena phlaeas) I’ve seen today were very dark on the upperside, which I failed to photograph.
Common Swallowtail (Papilio machaon):
Map butterflies (Araschnia levana) are common in the woodland clearings:
But the Speckled Woods (Pararge aegeria) are simply everywhere!
Upland Green Bush-crickets (Tettigonia cantans) are singing in numbers, but usually high up in the trees. Speaking of bush-crickets, I’ve shot three today.
Phaneroptera falcata:
Conocephalus fuscus:
And the Wart-biter (Decticus verrucivorus). Not a lot of these fellows this year, they are usually very common:
Blue-winged grasshoppers (Oedipoda caerulescens) were common around bare sand:
Bow-winged grasshoppers (Glyptobothrus biguttulus) are probably the commonest species:
Some tachinid still awaiting ID:
?Neoitamus sp. robber-fly:
Agriphila tristella crambid moth:
Prochoreutis sehestediana:
Stictoleptura rubra female:
Trichius fasciatus chafer:
Cryptocephalus sp. leaf beetle:
Gasteruption ?jaculator:
And the usual.
Vlad Proklov's wildlife blog 