At certain times of the year hardbacks and paperbacks gather in swarms before being released out into the wild. Publication date 6 July.

Friend of yours @HornimanWalrus ? Lounging about at Hastings Contemporary

Apparently these pillows put out in the library of the ⁦@LinneanSociety⁩ aren’t for delicate old tired readers to put their heads down for a quiet nap. They’re to support the delicate old books I’ve been reading.

Flying ant day in East Dulwich and as well as the huge queens males are also needed. Sometimes called drones but that’s really just honeybees. They don’t shed their wings to run around on the ground after mating. They just die whole after a few brief hours. Job done.

There’s an exhibition of field notebooks in the ⁦@LinneanSociety⁩ library, extolling the virtues of patient observation and careful record-keeping. I use illegible scrawl in mine. Should I be ashamed? Or should I start carrying a fountain pen and water colouring kit?

Tools of the trade. From Latreille’s volume 1 of Buffon’s Histoire Naturelle (1802-5). Little different from today. I once made a version of 7 using an old pair of scissors, wire coat hanger, solder, furniture webbing, net curtain. More trouble than it was worth to be honest.

I’m slightly disappointed that googling “spider egg sac that looks like a flying saucer” comes up blank. One of the ground spiders, Gnaphosidae I think. Probably Trachyzelotes pedestris which occurs on the site. Leyton yesterday.

Bee ‘hotel’ in deepest industrial urban brownfield Leyton. Over half of the 8-mm holes seem fully occupied by leaf-cutters. And here’s a female taking a well earned rest from her labours.

Fave bug of the day. So far. Syromastus rhombeus rhombic leatherbug. Leyton, industrial urban brownfield site of course.

Muntjac droppings? Leyton.

Several of these still available. Have a look.

Things forgotten for a long time until today. Long branch attraction.

Word of the day — meiofauna: animals 0.1-1.0mm. I occasionally visit this microscopic realm; to look at some of the smallest beetles in the family Ptiliidae. And a challenge: is this the shortest word in the English language to contain all five vowels?

RT @Met4CastUK: Rain?! . Nope! Flying ants! Enough of them flying about to appear on weather radars this evening 🐜

The view from my office today claims I have arrived.

Always photograph a common blue. Just to make sure it isn’t a brown Argus. Or in this case to confirm that it is a brown Argus. These two underside spots vertical. As usual I had to look that up.

Me being bitten by a ladybird. Last time it happened was during the Brighton ‘ladybird plague’ of 1976. When they land from flight a ladybird can taste whether a plant is being attacked somewhere by aphids by detecting the response chemicals, kairomones, in the plant sap.

This damsel bug nymph is an excellent ant mimic and well worthy of the name Himacerus mirmicoides. Does stand out a bit though, as there are no Formica wood ants at the Tower of London today.

Hoplia philanthus. I can’t bring myself to call it a Welsh chafer until someone can explain how it came by the name.

How many legs does a butterfly have? Four. Plus two invisible feathery antennal brushes. If you’re a painted lady.

Halyzia sedecimguttata, the orange ladybird, used to be considered quite a local species, feeding on mildew on beech leaves in old woods. Now regarded as common and widespread. I wonder what changed?