Hoverfly: Dasysyrphus albostriatus

29 Friday May 2026

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British hoverflies, Dasysyrphus albostriatus, Dasysyrphus albostriatus larva, Dasysyrphus larva, hoverfly, Stripe-backed fleckwing

It seems hard to believe that this crazy looking fly larva …

… could become this rather striking hoverfly, Dasysyrphus albostriatus, also known as the Stripe-backed fleckwing.

I’ve seen similar larvae before, either those of this exact species or another of the Dasysyrphus species (see The Godzilla of hoverfly larvae, October 2021), but I’ve only once seen an adult and that view was not a good one, so I was very pleased to get a closer view of this individual during a recent local walk.

My British Hoverflies guide book says ‘the downward-facing oblique bars on abdomen segments T2-T4 and the pair of grey stripes on the thorax make this species straightforward to identify.’ This hoverfly prefers to inhabit woodlands and can be seen from Spring through to early Autumn, though is most often seen on sunny days in April and May.

Mr and Ms Beautiful demoiselle

27 Wednesday May 2026

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Beautiful Demoiselle, British dragonflies, British odonata, Calopteryx Virgo, dragonflies, Odonata, RSPB Radipole

I didn’t spend a lot of time looking for odonata species during my recent visit to Weymouth, partly due to the weather conditions – when it was sunny, there was almost always a strong cold wind blowing through the areas where I usually find dragonflies, but also because the RSPB has made the decision, despite the protests of very many people, not to spend money on maintaining many of the footpaths at both the Lodmoor and Radipole nature reserves, meaning some areas are already becoming inaccessible. (I won’t go in to my opinion about the RSPB here – suffice to say it couldn’t get much lower, and the organisation will never again receive any financial support from me.)

On the one afternoon the weather was favourable, I was exceedingly lucky to find several species that were my first sightings for 2026. The Blue-tailed and Red-eyed damselflies will be covered in future blogs, when/if I get more and better photos of them at home in south Wales, but I couldn’t resist sharing these images I did manage to get of the aptly named male (above) and female (below) Beautiful demoiselles (Calopteryx virgo) that were wonderfully entertaining as they flitted amongst the tall reeds along the edge of a path at Radipole. Such gorgeous creatures!

Hoverfly: Parhelophilus species

25 Monday May 2026

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British hoverflies, hoverflies at RSPB Radipole, hoverfly, Parhelophilus species, RSPB Radipole

When I first saw these hoverflies basking on the leaves of tall reeds along the edge of a path at RSPB Radipole, I knew immediately they were something different, a species I hadn’t seen before. This was mostly due to their bright orange colour – they seemed almost to be glowing in the sunshine. I thought they were a species of Helophilus, as their body markings looked similar to Helophilus pendulus and H. trivittatus, but their orange gleam marked them out as something other.

I was wrong but close; these are a species of Parhelophilus, of which there are three species in Britain. One species, Parhelophilus consimilis, is rare and darker in colour, and the other two, P. frutetorum and P. versicolor, are so similar as to be very difficult to distinguish, one from the other.

If I had known what to look for – the male P. frutetorum has a small tubercle on the underside of its hind femur, I might have been able to get better photos that showed that area of the leg, but somehow I doubt it. And anyway, it’s not necessary to know the precise name of something to feel the pleasure of seeing it.

NFY: Adonis blue

23 Saturday May 2026

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Adonis blue, blue butterflies, British butterflies, butterflies in Tout Quarry, butterflies on the Isle of Portland, butterfly, Dorset butterflies, Isle of Portland butterflies, Polyommatus bellargus

As the Adonis blue (Polyommatus bellargus) uses Horseshoe vetch (Hippocrepis comosa) as its larval food plant, it can only be found where that species of vetch grows, which in turn means the majority of this butterfly’s colonies are restricted to certain locations in southern England, specifically ‘in the core areas of chalk downland in Dorset, Wiltshire, Sussex and the Isle of Wight’, according to Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies. (Horseshoe vetch will feature in tomorrow’s blog post.)

The restriction imposed by its larval plant means I never see this butterfly in Wales, and so, last week, on the Isle of Portland, was only the fourth time I’d seen the stunning cobalt blue upper wings of the male Adonis blue.

And, as this was the very start of their 2026 season – there are two generations of adults each year, the first fly in May-June, the second in August-September – I only saw three individuals, all males. The females emerge a little later than the males, so, due to poor timing on my part, I’ve only once seen a female Adonis blue, back in August 2019, during a visit to the Malling Down Reserve in East Sussex. Though I already have another trip to Weymouth and Portland booked, that will be in July, so I will once again miss seeing any females. I intend trying to remedy that omission next year, as I would very much like to be present when more of these little stunners are in flight, both male and female.

NFY: Wall

18 Monday May 2026

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British butterflies, butterfly, Dorset butterflies, Isle of Portland butterflies, Lasiommata megera, Wall, Wall butterfly

My decision to head to Weymouth and Portland for a week from the 7th to the 14th of May was a last minute one; I had booked somewhere else but the weather there was forecast to be mostly wet so I cancelled that and headed south to Dorset instead. I hadn’t checked which butterfly species I might see there; I just knew that if it rained in Weymouth, I could always go birding.

When the Dorset weather turned out mostly dry, if not always particularly sunny, I knew I had to head to the locations on the Isle of Portland where I’ve previously found butterflies, and one of the first I saw there was the Wall (Lasiommata megera). Checking now, I see that the first generation adults usually emerge in late April – early May, so my timing was perfect.

Most of the Walls I spotted, in Tout and King Barrow quarries, at the Broadcroft Butterfly Reserve, and along the coastal path above the west cliffs, were constantly active, the majority males flying back and forth in search of females but, occasionally, one would pause long enough and close enough for me to get a few photos. These are they.

NFY: Common blue

15 Friday May 2026

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British butterflies, butterfly, Common blue, Common blue butterfly

I had to go all the way to the Isle of Portland to see my first Common blue butterflies of the year!

Nah, not really. It just so happened that I didn’t spot any locally before I headed down to Dorset for another wonderful week of wildlife spotting, based in my lovely favourite guesthouse in Weymouth. I returned home yesterday, and this morning I went for a walk to my local Lavernock Nature Reserve, where I saw a couple more Common blues, despite a cool nor-westerly and not a lot of sun.

In case you’re not overly familiar with these butterflies, the one in my first photo is a male; they always have completely blue upper wings. The butterfly in my second photo is a female; they are often quite brown but this particular specimen had a lot more blue in her upper wings. And below is a side view, showing the pattern of spots on the lower wings. Distinguishing one species of blue butterfly from another can sometimes be all about recognising the patterns on the underwings.

Lekking Green long-horns

14 Thursday May 2026

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Adela reaumurella, British moths, Green long-horn, Green long-horn moths lekking, lek, lekking, Long-horn moth, moth

My Collins Concise Dictionary defines lek, the noun, as ‘a small area in which birds of certain species, notably the black grouse, gather for sexual display and courtship’, and the word can also be used as a verb, hence lekking, the activity of courtship display in that area.

The dictionary only mentions birds and, certainly, we usually think of lekking as something confined to birds, but the act of showing off in order to attract a mate is not confined to avian species; insects and, apparently, some fish, also perform mating displays.

And that’s exactly what these Green long-horn moths (Adela reaumurella) were doing when I spotted them congregating around a particular bush in an area of trees (in fact, I’ve now seen several such displays in various woodland or tree-filled locations). I’m not sure why they choose their particular spot but it seems to be a prominent position towards the top of a shrub or on a branch that sticks out from the rest of a tree, often in sunshine, and they flutter about, settle briefly on a leaf, then flutter again. The lek is a delight to watch.

Early mining bees

13 Wednesday May 2026

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Andrena bees, Andrena haemorrhoa, British bees, Early mining bee, mining bees, Orange-tailed mining bee

I’ve done it again – found some little bees so gorgeous that I simply couldn’t resist taking their photos, but this time I know their names.

These are Early mining bees (Andrena haemorrhoa), identifiable by the wonderfully furry, Fox-coloured thorax, with a complementary black abdomen and, as you might be able to see in my first photo, a fluffy little Fox-coloured bottom (which is the reason this species is also known as the Orange-tailed mining bee). This bee’s colouring is also the reason for the epithet haemorrhoa in its scientific name, as haima is the Greek word for blood and rheō is the Greek verb meaning ‘to flow’ – you have to imagine that the foxy mane and tail resemble flowing blood.

A fungus-infected ladybird

12 Tuesday May 2026

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fungus infecting Harlequin ladybird, Harlequin, harlequin ladybird, Harlequin with fungal infection, Hesperomyces harmoniae, ladybird

This Harlequin ladybird (Harmonia axyridis) has been infected with the fungus previously known as Hesperomyces virescens, that is now known to be specific to the Harlequin so has been renamed Hesperomyces harmoniae. Hopefully, you should be able to make out the short pale-coloured stalk-like growths emerging from between the ladybird’s eyes and along its front left leg. According to the Beetlehangers website, the fungus is being investigated as a means of controlling the Harlequin ladybird, as it is an invasive, non-native species that is threatening the populations of native British species. The fungus is believed to decrease the Harlequin’s ‘mating frequency, winter survival rate, and mobility’ – not very pleasant if you’re a Harlequin but good news for our other ladybird species.

An influx of Painted ladies

09 Saturday May 2026

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British butterflies, butterfly, influx of Painted ladies, migrant butterfly, migrating Painted ladies, Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui

I wasn’t in the UK for the last huge influx of Painted ladies (Vanessa cardui) in the spring of 2009, when an estimated 11 million butterflies arrived here (Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, p.241) but, in the last couple of weeks of April this year, we experienced a much smaller influx of this amazing migrating species.

This type of influx is subject to weather conditions; the butterflies take advantage of strong southerly winds to fly from sub-Saharan Africa across the Saharan Desert and the Mediterranean Sea to southern Europe and then onwards to more northerly locations, including Britain. (These weather conditions also see an increase in migrant moths arriving in southern Britain, in car owners reporting a thin covering of Saharan dust on their vehicles, and, sometimes, in murky skies and spectacular sunsets.)

I spotted my first two Painted ladies of the year at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park on 30 April, my bumper day of new sightings, as described in my last two blogs. ‘Nice’, I thought, and didn’t really expect to see a lot more, though I did notice reports on social media of large numbers of sightings across southern England.

Then, last Saturday, 2 May, as I walked the paths through the various fields at Cosmeston, Painted ladies just kept on appearing, as if by magic. My personal count after a couple of hours was 16, though I didn’t cover all the tracks around the park and I’m fairly sure there were many more I didn’t see. This number was certainly higher than I’d ever seen in one day before.

And you might be wondering what happens to all these butterflies? Well, according to Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, research has shown that they breed here in Britain and their offspring migrate south again in the autumn. It’s estimated that, in the spectacular influx of 2009, as many as 21 million Painted ladies embarked on the return journey to Africa. Just incredible!