Top 20 Most Common Insects in Scunthorpe

Seven-spotted ladybug (Coccinella septempunctata), known in North America as the "seven-spotted ladybug," is the most common species of ladybird in Europe and the official state insect of five U.S. states. While not native to North America, it has established itself there after being introduced to control aphid populations. Its bright coloring deters predators, and it may also play dead or secrete foul-smelling liquids to discourage consumption.

The Great Heidelibelle owes its name to the fact that it is the largest representative of its genus in Germany. The second part of the species name (epithet) striolatum (m. Striolatus, "with small stripes") refers to the pattern of the breast section. The species occurs in some subspecies with a distribution focus in Asia.

The heart and dart (Agrotis exclamationis) is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. A familiar moth to many, it is considered one of the most common of the European region. It occurs throughout the Palearctic realm from Ireland to Japan. This is a quite variable species with forewings ranging from pale to dark brown but always recognizable by the distinctively shaped dark stigmata which give it its common name. The wingspan is 35–44 mm. The hindwings are whitish (compared with other common Agrotis species, the hindwings of this species are usually paler than in heart and club but darker than in turnip moth). This species usually has a dark area at the front of the thorax, visible as a horizontal bar when viewing the moth head on. The differences are not consistent however; they are highly variable in both colour and markings, and identification of atypical or worn examples may prove impossible without examination of genitalia. See Townsend et al. This moth flies at night from May to July and is attracted to light, sometimes in large numbers. It also frequently visits nectar-rich flowers such as Buddleia, ragwort and red valerian. The larva is brown above and grey below and feeds on a variety of plants, both wild and cultivated (see list below). This is one of the notorious cutworms and often severs or fatally damages plants at the base. The species overwinters as a full-grown larva in a chamber in the soil before pupating in the spring. ^ The flight season refers to the British Isles. This may vary in other parts of the range.

Despite its common name, only male specimens of common blue butterfly (Polyommatus icarus) can accurately be described as blue; the females are predominately gray-brown, with only a dusting of blue and a scattering of orange spots. The adults live for only three weeks before dying.

It has a wingspan of 2.5 - 3 cm. The wings are greyish white with three irregular black blotches along the costa of the forewing, the largest in the middle. Occasionally, much darker (melanic) forms occur. In the typical form the ground colour is dirty whitish and the median band is almost or altogether obsolete in its posterior half.

Ischnura elegans can reach a body length of 2.5 - 3.5 cm and a wingspan of about 3.5 cm. Hindwings reach alength of 1.4 - 2 cm. Adult male blue-tailed damselflies have a head and thorax patterned with blue and black. There is a bi-coloured pterostigma on the front wings. Eyes are blue. They have a largely black abdomen with very narrow pale markings where each segment joins the next. Segment eight, however, is entirely pale blue. At rest, the wings of most damselfly species are held back together, unlike dragonflies, which rest with their wings out flat. The thorax of juvenile males has a green tinge. Female blue-tailed Damselflies come in a variety of colour forms.Juveniles may be salmon pink, form rufescens; violet, form violacea and a pale green form. The colour darkens as the damselfly ages. Mature females may be blue like the male, form typica; olive green thorax and brown spot, form infuscans or pale brown thorax and brown spot, form infusca-obseleta.

Interestingly, individuals belonging to orange tip (Anthocharis cardamines) occupy different habitats depending on gender: the males inhabit the edges of forests, whereas the females prefer meadows. When laying eggs, females release pheromones to deter other females from laying eggs on the same flowerhead. They are picky about choosing their host plants, and females will avoid plants not fully exposed to sunlight.

The silver y (Autographa gamma) has an interesting name that comes from the silver, y-shaped patterns on each of its wings. Patterns on those wings also provide for decent camouflage. Its colors can be different depending on the local climate. You may catch them in your garden given their love of taking nectar from flowers.

It rests with closed wings when not in flight.

Forewing varying from whitish ochreous, through pale and dark grey to brownish grey, dark brown and black; a black streak from base below cell, another above inner margin near base, and a third, more strongly marked, along submedian fold between the claviform stigma and outer line; inner and outer lines pale, with dark edges; claviform small, dark edged; upper stigmata large, of the ground colour or paler, with pale rings and dark outlines; the orbicular varying in shape, generally oblique and elongate, sometimes shortened, and more rarely rounded; submarginal line pale, zigzag, preceded by black wedge-shaped marks, the terminal area, except at apex, darker; inner margin usually marked with white scales, developed beyond outer line into a more or less prominent pale patch reaching submedian fold; hindwing dirty greyish, with darker cell spot and veins, with a broad fuscous marginal border preceded by a dark outer line; — ab. pallida Fuchs is wholly whitish ochreous, with all the black streaks plain, the stigmata black edged; the central area and the terminal washed with brownish grey; hindwing whitish with an ochreous grey faintly marked border — in intacta Petersen the usual pale patch beyond outer line on inner margin is absent, the whole wing being suffused with grey or grey brown; — ab. obscura Th. Mieg. represents a suffused brown or grey-brown form; — infuscata Buch. White is a northern form with the markings more or less obscured and hidden by blackish suffusion, of which brunnea Tutt is a brown black offshoot; the extreme form of this, when all markings are lost in an intense black suffusion, is aethiops Tutt; in all these dark-suffused forms the hindwing is much darker, especially in the terminal. This moth flies at night. In the British Isles it is active from June to August with a second brood sometimes emerging in September and October. It is attracted to light, sugar and many nectar-rich flowers. The larva feeds at the roots of various grasses including tussock grasses, orchard grass, ryegrass, reed grasses, and fescues such as sheep's fescue. This species overwinters as a larva.