On Saturday 14 June 2025 I went along to Shipley Station Butterfly Meadow where Bradford Urban Wildlife Group were having an open day.
Warning: Arachnophobes be aware – spiders ahead.
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Butterflies & Moths
It took a while for me to get my eye in and to start noticing things so it was great to have others around that were also looking. After initially thinking that not much would show we started to see more and more.
Burnet Moth
Burnet moth Cocoons were spotted. Thet were sealed so a Pupa was probably still inside. After being pleased to spot one Burnet Moth caterpillar others started to show themselves. And a couple of moths appeared.
One of the reasons for the small area being a butterfly meadow is that Common Blue butterflies and Marbled Whites have been seen there. I’m told that a Common Blue was seen but it is a bit early for Marbled Whites, though who knows with the changes in weather we are having.
Ringlet
Several Ringlet butterflies could be seen flying around when the sun was out.
There were reports of Speckled Wood and Small Tortoiseshell. And while I am reporting on what others saw – there was a Banded Demoiselle.
Slender Rufous Tortrix
The ID is a best guess. I am not good at Micro moths.
The area is hopefully going to be managed in a way that encourages Bird’s Foot Trefoil – trees and Brambles cut back, this should then increase the population of Common Blues. It is a little complicated in that Network Rail own the land, Northern Rail manage it and Yorkshire Butterfly Conservation and Bradford Urban Wildlife Group volunteers want to work on it.
More Insects
It might only be a small space but quite a lot can be found in there.
Ladybirds
I didn’t go looking for eggs but Ladybird larvae, pupae and beetles were plentiful. One pupa that I took a photo of looked as though it was going to be food for a spider. And another case looked as though a Ladybird had just emerged from it, the ladybird next to it had yet to develop its spots.
Beetles & Bugs
I think the Oedemera beetles are two varieties. The ones with the separated wing cases are Oedenera nobilis – thick-legged flower beetle or Swollen-thighed beetle and the other smaller ones Oedemera lucida. Of the Swollen-thighed beetle it is the male that has the swollen thighs.
The Hawthorn Shield Bug was looking rather smart and fresh.
More Wings
Honey Bees, Red Tailed Bumblebee and Tree Bumblebee settled long enough for me to get photos of them. I am not going to try to narrow down the Hoverfly any further. The other one is a bit easier and seems to be a match for Long Hoverfly – Sphaerophoria scripta
The Larvae of several beetles and hoverflies feed on Aphids and there seemed to be plenty of them just waiting to be eaten.
Arachnids
The first two photos are of a Long-jawed Orb-weaver spider (Tetragnatha) with what looks like a larva from a parasitic wasp at its neck/pedicel.
Red Spider Mites were, as expected, crawling on the wooden fence.
Several Harvestman ?Harvestmen? were spotted.
The spider with the Ladybird pupa is of the Enoplognatha genus I believe, a variety of comb-footed spider.
Plants
A proper list of the plants seen was created. I could do with seeing a copy of it to see if the names I have given the plants here were actually there.
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The images are published under the Creative Commons, BY-NC-SA license. Feel free to share them, edit them, but please keep my name in the credits. And if I have got the ID of anything wrong please let me know, I don’t consider myself an expert but I have write something. It is often a best guess and it would take up too much room to say It could be this, or it could be… or perhaps.
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