Top 20 Most Common Insects in Wirral

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.

An unusually large and heavy species of moth, large yellow underwing (Noctua pronuba) is dreaded by gardeners for the larvae's habit of causing fatal damage to the base of virtually any herbaceous plant. Large migrations occur some years, but how those years are determined is not yet known. Its contrasting colors (yellow-orange and brown) are thought to confuse would-be predators.

The silver, comma-shaped marked on the butterfly’s wings give it the common name the Comma. It is a common butterfly in southern Britain that was once on the verge of extinction in the 1930s. The butterflies are often found at the edge of forests, close to meadows with plenty of nectar-rich wildflowers.

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.

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.

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 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.

It rests with closed wings when not in flight.

The upperside forewings are a bright orange with a dark outside edge border and with eight or nine black spots. The hindwings are dark with an orange border. Some females also have a row of blue spots inside the orange border and are known as form caeruleopunctata. The undersides are patterned in a similar way but are paler. The black spots on the forewings are outlined in yellow and the dark colouring is replaced by a pale brownish grey. The hindwings are the same brown/grey colour with small black dots and a narrow orange border. The caterpillars (larvae) are usually green, but some have a purple stripe down the middle of the back and along each side.

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.