Actually, no. Apparently not.
Otherwise I would not have noticed an odd-looking leaf-hopper sunning itself on an ivy leaf in the afternoon sunshine. Sleeker and a tad longer than the common spittle bug, Philaenus spumarius, it had a couple of pale flecks at the wing-tips. And I wondered…..yes, Fieberiella florii.
Fieberiella florii.
As usual, this is a pretty rubbish photo, taken on my phone down the barrel of a microscope. Much better images here on the British Bugs website, take a look.
First discovered in the UK in 1998 (its originally from North America), it’s been found a few times in the London area. But this is the first time I’ve come across it.
Richard Jones
Bugman Jones 
Very interesting. Last year you could also find a lot of stuff fairly late due to delayed development from the poor summer we all experienced. An example is the Mirid bug Conostethus venustus. Not an easy one to find in the garden unless you’re in the region surrounding South Yorkshire and you have grwoing plenty of its host plant (scentless mayweed). Normally overwinters in the egg stage, but in early January 2013 I found this under the host plant around the base of a wind turbine in rural Rotherham and in sparsely vegetated habitat alongside a settling lagoon in a vegetable crop processing factory near Bilsthorpe in Nottinghamshire. Earlier in mid November I found it in disturbed habitat next to a roadside café on the A616 to Manchester in South Yorkshire. I begin to think that a typical year for many species may now be a distant memory.