The shield bugs are back. I don't get many beetles in the trap, but this one rang a bell when I found it sitting inert among the eggboxes. Sure enough, it figures on August 9 last year, when I surmised that it must be called the Red Spot Beetle and one of my inestimably-valued commentators put me right. It's a Forest, or red-legged, Shield Bug. The Shield bit is obvious, but I would have highlighted that amazing blue and gold fringe in the name myself. Its presence is a sign of good tree cover and we are lucky to have that in the Aire Valley between Leeds and Bradford. It's a precious little band of green, badly damaged in recent years by the effects of rising house prices and selfish people enclosing land used by everyone for years. The recession is welcome on that score, at least.
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