Boerhavia, a genus in the four o'clock family containing species sometimes called hogweed
hogweed |
In the song "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" by Genesis, from their 1971 album Nursery Cryme, the history of the plant's introduction to Britain is humorously recounted, and the dangers of the plant are portrayed facetiously in lines such as: "Turn and run! Nothing can stop them, around every river and canal their power is growing".
Many wild herbs, hogweed, wild carrot and malva grow in the meadows alongside the Main, where there is also a small campsite.
The insect can also be very common where there are creeping thistles (Cirsium arvense) or swamp thistles (Cirsium palustre), oregano (Origanum vulgare), Forest scabious (Knautia sylvatica), or hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium) which are favourite foodplants of the imagos.
They can be encountered from May through late summer feeding on small insects and on nectar and pollen of flowers from various plants (mainly Apiaceae family, as Anthriscus sylvestris, Hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium), but also on Rubus fruticosus and Crataegus monogyna.