It is often a struggle to find something interesting at this time of year, but something unexpected usually turns up. A few weeks ago I saw a house fly buzzing around at a downstairs window, but a closer examination revealed an insect that I’ve never seen before. Going by the uninspiring name of Little House Fly, it is rather smaller and slimmer than the usual house flies and has a striped thorax and pale patches on the abdomen; it also has white edges to the inside of its eyes. Like the common house fly, they feed on rotting food and excrement, often moving from one to the other. Because of this they are considered to be possible disease carriers and definitely not something to allow free run of your house. Nice to see it once, but once was enough.

Our second unforeseen visitor was a Tree Damsel Bug. It is recognised by the row of red/orange spots along the edge of the abdomen and the rather short reddish wings. It is more usually found on deciduous trees where it feeds on small insects, mites and aphids. The term bugs is often used indiscriminately for any small creature, but the true bugs are insects with piercing and sucking mouthparts that act rather like a hypodermic needle. These feed mostly on plants, using their mouthparts to extract plant sap, but some are bloodsucking whilst others (including this one) are predators on small invertebrates. Whether feeding on plants or animals, the bugs pierce the tissue and inject digestive enzymes into the tissues before sucking the fluid up into their stomach. Many bugs resort to a painful, defensive stab wound when they are trapped or feel threatened. The enzymes are injected deeply into the skin where they cause noticeable irritation as I found out to my cost earlier this year. These bites are not feeding behaviour except in the case of a few tropical species.

My third surprise this month came whilst I was walking at Beacon Hill Country Park to the north of Leicester. A bright red patch of material on a decaying branch turned out to be a colony of Raspberry Slime Mould, a species I have never encountered before. They are widely distributed throughout the country, although rarely encountered. They form small round red fruiting bodies, although the colour changes to purple and then brown as they mature. The fruiting bodies are attached to the underlying substrate by a spongy white structure that can be seen towards the top of the picture. Also present is a small slug that almost certainly went on to make a meal of the slime mould. Slime mould is an informal name given to groups of unrelated microorganisms that are rarely seen in most of their life stages, until they form their often colourful fruiting bodies. They are found throughout the world, including some deserts, Arctic regions and are especially abundant in tropical rainforests. They are important in the decomposition of dead vegetation, although some are parasitic on various plants. They are of particular interest to biologists as they exhibit some behaviours that are normally only seen in animals with brains, although most of the time they just sit there apparently doing nothing.

A quiet month, but a fly and a bug and an organism resembling a squashed raspberry can always enliven a day out for the keen naturalist. If you are keen to learn more about the wildlife of the county, I would recommend searching the website of NatureSpot where you can learn about the more than 8,000 species that have been recorded by amateur naturalists in Leicestershire and Rutland.