YEARLY HIGHLIGHTS
Year: 2023
Red-breasted carrion beetle (Oiceoptoma thoracicum)
Category: CARRION BEETLES
Where and when encountered: Anagach Woods on 20 April 2023
Comment: The background for this photograph is the feathers of a dead pheasant.
Devil's tooth/Mealy tooth (Hydnellum peckii/ferrugineum)
Category: FUNGI
Where and when encountered: Glenmore Forest Park on 28 July 2023
Comment: Splitting the pair of possible species in the field would have required tasting some of the fungus's flesh, and the organism looked far too beautiful to spoil in this way.
Poplar hawk-moth (Laothoe populi)
Category: MOTHS
Where and when encountered: Free Church Wood on 10 August 2023
Comment: The setting for this sighting – the edge of a noisy roundabout outside Grantown – did not befit the aesthetic charm of this caterpillar.
Emperor moth (Saturnia pavonia)
Category: MOTHS
Where and when encountered: Glenmore Forest Park on 11 August 2023
Comment: The adult emperor moth is a spectacular insect, but this last-instar caterpillar is hardly less striking.
Gorse shieldbug (Piezodorus lituratus)
Category: SHIELDBUGS
Where and when encountered: Balliefurth Farm on 18 August 2023
Comment: It was almost as if these nymphs had been posing for a photograph, so well positioned were they on the broom seedpod.