14 Monday Jun 2021
Posted in insects
It seems, from what I’ve just been reading on the NatureSpot website, that I was very lucky to catch these Scorpion flies in flagrante delicto:
Mating usually occurs at night. It can be a dangerous time for the male, if he is not careful the female might decide to kill him! To avoid this he presents her with a gift of a drop of saliva which, it seems, in the world of scorpion flies, is the equivalent of a bunch of roses or a box of chocolates.
11 Friday Jun 2021
Posted in insects
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Some people go fishing; I go insecting, and these are an assortment of recent insect finds:
Red-headed cardinal beetle, Click beetle, Dock beetle, Earwig, the fly Nemorilla floralis, the Mirid bug Harpocera thoracica, the hoverfly Xylota segnis, insect eggs (possibly a ladybird species), Red-and-black froghopper, Scorpion fly, St Mark’s fly, and a weevil (not sure which species).
08 Tuesday Jun 2021
Tags
British insects, insect larvae, larvae on Guelder rose, larvae on Oak, Oak sawfly, Oak sawfly larvae, Viburnum beetle, Viburnum beetle larvae
Seeing these two different species of larvae was a good reminder to me that not all ‘caterpillars’ are butterflies or moths.
This first is the larva of an Oak sawfly (Periclista lineolata) that was happily munching away at a delicious young Oak leaf.
And these other little nibblers, above and below, covered in dots and dashes and munching on the leaves of Guelder rose, will grow up to be beetles, Viburnum beetles (Pyrrhalta viburni).
I doubt I’ll ever see the adult Oak sawfly, as they seem rather elusive, but I have more chance of spotting these beetles as adults so must remember to keep an eye out for them in July and August.
26 Monday Apr 2021
Posted in insects
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Something flitted close past my ear, pulling my hair, making a low thwack sound. I rubbed my neck, threaded my fingers through loose strands of hair, thinking an insect had landed on me … nothing. I pulled off and checked my cap … still nothing. Thirty minutes or so later, as I had finished my meander around the park, I took off my backpack to put my camera away and found this hitchhiker, a Caddisfly.
Even as I unzipped my bag to get my macro camera, it remained motionless. I got down within inches of its face and took several photos, yet still it didn’t move. Eventually, wanting to get it off my backpack, I had to poke it gently with my finger and even then it just climbed on to my finger and moved slowly around my hand. I don’t think it was injured at all, just remarkably laid back about human contact. Finally, I managed to persuade it to climb on to a nearby bush where it could snooze in the sun in peace.
23 Friday Apr 2021
Tags
blackthorn, Blackthorn blossom, British insects, British trees, insects on Blackthorn blossom, Spring colour
Flies and hoverflies, bumbles, bees and butterflies – all love feasting on Blackthorn blossom as much as I love watching them enjoying its bounty. And the blossom itself is so blindingly white it’s like a springtime snowfall when the petals fall to the ground.
22 Thursday Apr 2021
Tags
British insects, British shieldbugs, Dolycoris baccarum, gorse, Gorse shieldbug, Hairy shieldbug, Piezodorus lituratus, shieldbugs on gorse
I had expected to find Gorse shieldbugs on these glowing gorse bushes (the clue’s in the name) but, in fact, the most numerous were the Hairy shieldbugs (of which there must have been at least 20).
The Gorse shieldbug (Piezodorus lituratus) (above left) looks very like a Common green shieldbug but its red antennae are a distinctive identification feature. The Hairy shieldbug (Dolycoris baccarum) (above right, and below) is a much more colourful character, a stylish combination of purple-brown and green, and it also has distinctive antennae, this time three white bands on a black base.
13 Tuesday Apr 2021
Tags
British insects, Common Green Shieldbug, Exapion ulicis, Gorse weevil, Green shieldbug, Palomena prasina
Slowly, slowly, more insects are emerging. When I was getting a Gorse photo for last Sunday’s yellow wildflower challenge, this teeny tiny Gorse weevil (Exapion ulicis) paid a visit. I’m not sure if it was getting salt from my hand as it seemed quite reluctant to leave.
And yesterday I was scanning a Buddleja for leaf mines when I had the feeling I was being watched. This Common green shieldbug (Palomena prasina) was very well camouflaged sitting perfectly still on its leaf.
26 Friday Mar 2021
Tags
British fungi, British insects, Daldinia concentrica, King Alfred's Cakes, springtail, woodlouse
King Alfred’s been back in the kitchen but a Great British Bake Off winner he is not. His cakes, otherwise known as Daldinia concentrica, even when you can peek inside their blackened exteriors, never look palatable. With these I found in the woods this week though, Alfred has certainly produced some creative shapes.
And, even if inedible, they are sturdy enough to provide a home to tiny creatures, in this case a woodlouse and a springtail.
10 Wednesday Mar 2021
Posted in insects
Tags
Andrena bees, bee parasites, British bees, British insects, male Stylops emerging from bee, parasitic relationships, Stylops
These photos had the entomologists on Twitter getting excited when I first posted them Monday evening. Though I didn’t realise it at the time, what I was seeing was a parasite emerging from the back of the bee’s body. The parasite is a Stylops, a species that has a rather gruesome but incredibly fascinating lifestyle.
The female Stylops lives permanently in the body of its host, often, as here, one of the Andrena species of bee. Her head and thorax poke out of the bee’s abdomen so she can release male-attracting pheromones and mate. I managed to photograph these and blogged about them in April 2020 (Wild word: stylopised). When the resulting larvae emerge, they pop out onto flowers the bee is feeding on, so they can then hitch a ride with another bee, burrow into it, and start the process all over again.
Some of the Stylops larvae are male, with wings. They do not have mouth parts for feeding as their only purpose is to find a female and mate. It is one of those emerging winged males that can be seen in my photos and, apparently, this process is rarely seen. Unfortunately, someone came walking along the path where I was watching this bee and I had to move to one side to allow them to pass at a safe distance. When I looked back, the bee had disappeared.
If you want to read more about the Stylops, there’s an interesting article on the Royal Entomological Society website – the male Stylops has the distinction of appearing as the emblem on the society’s official seal and logo.
30 Wednesday Dec 2020
Posted in insects
Tags
British hoverflies, British insects, British leafhoppers, Cicadella viridis, Helophilus trivittatus, hoverfly larva, Italian Alder aphid, leafhopper
These are some of the highlights of my year in insects:
I found my First hoverfly larva (and I’ve since found another, though not been able to identify either) …
… and my first examples of the hoverfly species Helophilus trivittatus.
And, very recently, my first Italian Alder aphids, which I’ve since found on another Italian Alder tree on the other side of town.
Here’s one I haven’t blogged – it’s a leafhopper, Cicadella viridis, which I saw for the first time during one of the two times this year that I actually caught a train to venture out of my local walking area (this was immediately after our first lockdown ended, when I dared to make two local train journeys – not been on a train or bus since).
