I have to say that it was the insect life that first attracted me to the field due to their abundance. Particularly prolific were hoverflies and butterflies but, of course, these can be found in most places where there are flowers, and none were specific to maritime locations. However, an insect that was particularly prolific was the lesser marsh grasshopper (Chorthippus albomarginatus) (see 8) below. It is similar in appearance to the meadow grasshopper i.e. straw brown or light green, but less brightly coloured. In August and September, the field was absolutely hopping with them!  Its habitat is described as “the landward side of sand dunes, also saltmarshes and shingle banks, low lying pastures and on the grassy slopes of dykes”. 

An insect which I hadn’t previously seen was the sixteen-spot ladybird (Tytthaspis sedecimpunctata) (see 10 below). They were to be found in good numbers, mostly on the fleabane. Coloured creamy yellow the spots were distributed fairly evenly on the wing cases (elytra) and the thorax with what looked like three joined together along the outer edge of the wing case, which is counted as one spot. This little beetle is said to be an inhabitant of the grass layer occurring on dunes, inland dunes and sandy shores. Apart from their colour the other most significant feature (or perhaps insignificant) was their size as they are only two to three millimetres long. It does not appear in the 2009 survey list of insects but then not many insects are mentioned at all.  I suspect the surveyor was not really looking at insects much.  There were also several day flying micro moths to be seen none of which appeared in the survey. One of these was particularly attractive and was usually found on the fleabane (see (3) below).  I eventually managed to identify it as Apodia bifractella whose food plants are common fleabane and sea aster. The moth has a wingspan of 9-12 mm and flies between July and early September. It overwinters in the larval stage, the larvae being active from October to April. They feed within the seed heads of their host plant and pupation takes place within the seed head.

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Most of the hoverflies I saw were in the fairly widespread Eristalus species but there was one attractive little hoverfly which was usually to be seen whenever I visited, namely Sphaerophoria scripta, known as the ‘long hoverfly’ (see 4 below).  It mainly feeds on nectar and pollen of various species of the Asteraceae family which, of course, includes fleabane and sea aster.  The larvae, as with many hoverflies, feed on aphids.   Needless to say, there was also a number of bee species to be seen.