A few weeks ago I found a small green caterpillar on my rose bush. It might have well have had a label attached to it saying "generic green caterpillar" since it seemed completely average. It had no distinguishing marks at all really. The only thing I could do was to keep it as a pet, feed it and wait and see what it turned into. Did you know that for the majority of butterflies and moths in this country we do not know what the caterpillar stage looks like? There are just too many species and it is difficult to nurture some caterpillars successfully. By keeping this little dude, and photographing it, I could then match the caterpillar with the moth on Wild About Britain and potentially fill in a blank in human knowledge.
What did the caterpillar do next? Well, in the wild it was doing something typically moth like. It was making a den out of leaves. Using silk it glued the surrounding leaves into a protective shell and then hid during the daytime. This I suppose is to protect it from predators that would use sight to hunt it, such as birds. This protection also helped prevent it being found by ichneumon wasps that would use it as a host for its parasitic young. When in the jar on my desk it continued to do this leaf rolling and fed at night when it was dark. 
Then on the 16th of August it spun a more secure cocoon out of sink and began to undergo metamorphosis. Its chrysalis is pictured above. Then it was just a waiting game.
Then 9 days later this pretty brown moth emerged. It was a Light Brown Apple Moth (Epiphyas postvittana). It turned out not to be scientifically significant as this is a well documented species. In the 1930s this moth was accidentally introduced to Cornwall and now is one of the most dangerous threats to the UK fruit industry. Because of this its life cycle is well known and photographed.
So all this time I was rearing a pest, but one of these days I may rear something previously un photographed. That would be really exciting.
After spending some time on the summit we decided to walk around it in the anticlockwise direction. It wasn't long before we came across this amazing creature, a male Scorpion Fly (Panorpa communis). Now, I have seen several females of this creature before, and they are relatively boring. This male however is much more awesome as they have that enormous scorpion like sting at the end of their abdomen. This is one mean looking dude. Perfectly harmless though. Worth remembering also that this alongside the dragonflies and the damselflies it is one of the really ancient orders of insects. 
A little further down the track and I became irresistibly drawn to the catkins on a birch tree. What interesting photographic subjects those are! Suddenly my eyes were drawn to a rather strange black, green and white bug that was ambling up one of the twigs. I had no idea what it was, and photographing it became tricky as it insisted on walking away every time I got close. Still stumped I ended up conferring with the insect experts on Wild About Britain who told me that this odd little fella is in fact a Mirid Bug (Heterotoma planicornis).
The last thing I noticed was that the beech tree had, in a selection of sizes, these pretty Birch shieldbugs (Elasmostethus interstinctus). Since I could see several of these I noticed that as they get bigger they change shape. They start out like green ladybirds and as they get older grow into their distinctive shield shapes. Thats the third shieldbug species I've seen this year. Wooo!
Take a look at this beautiful female Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus). Hoverflies are very misunderstood. Though they look like wasps, they are completely harmless. Their larvae look like small green caterpillars and are so often grubbed off plants by gardeners. The funny thing is that the larvae is an aphid eating machine and so a welcome species in the garden.
There are 250 different species of hoverfly in the UK. Its interesting to see how many different types you can spot in your garden. So far I have spotted four different species in mine. The one above is a female Hoverfly (Sphaerophoria scripta).
You may have seen one of these Oak Bush Crickets (Meconema thalassinum) on your bedroom ceiling. These large grasshopper like crickets are nocturnal and unfortunately for them attracted to bright lights. What a confusing place the modern world must seem to them.
This dangerous looking chap is a Ichneumon Wasp (Pimpla hypochondriaca). In this photo she is cleaning her eyes with her front pair of legs. That scary pointy sting like thing is its ovipositor. This wasp wanders around looking for a caterpillar or grub to inject its eggs into and then leaves them to feed on the still living host. Nice!
This hansom chap is a Green shieldbug (Palomena prasina) that I found strolling across my rose bush, probably to fins some sap to drink.
Here a black and white Curled Rose Sawfly (Allantus cinctus) promenades on a rose leaf looking for a mate. Eventually he moved on.
Finally for today take a look at this amazing Picture-wing fly (Tephritis formosa). A pair were eying each other up on my rose. After mating their eggs are laid in thistles and a gall forms. 
When you get out of the wood you end up back in farmland overlooking the pretty village of South Croxton. Here the wildlife is a little bit easier to see. 
Check out this Cereal Leaf Beetle (Oulema melanopa). I found a couple of these loitering on the grass stems near the edge of the field above. These little bugs eat grass leaves and so are disliked by farmers who grow grass related plants. Still I think he looks quite pretty. 
One thing that I like to do when walking around in the fields of Leicestershire is to sneak across field boundaries. That is, to silently slip over the fence and peak into the next field to see whats there before it has chance to run or fly away. Its surprising what wildlife you can catch off guard. Part of the path went through this conifer plantation. The rows of trees essentially cut off all view except for the line of trees at either side of you. As you move through the plantation a new row will open up and you can look down it. Again and again you go past row after row. Each new row was a new opportunity to sneak and peak to see what was hidden. 
Check this out. A Brown Hare (Lepus capensis). In fact there was probably 20 or so of them and I got some fantatic close encounters. Further along I stopped to look at the White Bryony(Bryonia dioica) growing in the hedgerow. At this time of year you can see the berries of this plant hanging in the bushes like red grapes, almost. 
This plant is one of those that I remember seeing back at infants school. As I remember there were only ever two plants that came onto my radar. Sticky plant and curly wurly plant. Well this is curly wurly plant. Let me explain, to help it climb it sends out little feelers that entwine other established plants and enable it to get a leg up. Check out these curly wurlies.
The last interesting thing that I saw was this bazaar looking Dancing Fly (Empididae empis).
Another creature found in the garden was this Speckled Bush-cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima). It seemed to have climbed to the top of a flower stem and wanted to go further and so was reaching for a nearby flower.
Take a look at this Rose Sawfly (Allantus cinctus) on my rose. This is a different species to the usual yellow bellied Rose Sawflies that I have been following in recent days.
So the first thing I did was scoop it up and place it back on its cocoon for some publicity shots and then released it into the wild (my back garden). It could fly right away and made a bee line to the rose bush of its birth. Once there it landed and cleaned its wings (above) it went for a walk around the rose bush, fly occasionally and basked in the sun.
Within a minute another Rose Sawfly arrived! I spotted my one doing this. It can't be egg laying yet so it must be the laying of chemical messengers to potential mates. They grow up so fast!
Some of the fields are a blaze with this, the Common poppy (Papaver rhoeas).
Here is a sign of the coming autumn, orange berries on the Lords and Ladies (Arum maculatum) plant. Believe me now?
After rinsing the fruit I noticed that our washing up bowl contained eight to ten of the poor little things swimming about. So I carefully fished them out with a teaspoon and pored them and the water onto a piece of kitchen towel to separate the caterpillar from the water. Then I carefully brushed them into a jar containing a few blackberries.
So, granted, it is a little bit disgusting to sit and watch these things wriggle like maggots all over something that I would otherwise eat. As part of a biological study however, this is really interesting. At some point they will have to turn into beetles. How do they do this? Nobody knows and more importantly nobody has ever taken a photo of one in undergoing metamorphosis. You will just have to wait and see what happens.
This is the first Holy Blue (Celastrina argiolus) that I have ever seen, so it really was a special occasion. The photo does not do it justice but the inside of its wings were a lovely vivid blue with dark black tips. Lovely. 
I needed help identifying this one. It is a Common Pyralid Moth (Udea lutealis). I found it in the meadows feasting off the ragwort flowers. Its wings have pleats like a roll neck jumper. The final thing I noted is the menacing predator below. If you were a little creature you would run if you saw this coming. It is a Ground beetle (Harpalus sp) and I must say one of the best photos of one I have ever taken.