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Tag Archives: British insects

Nemorilla floralis

17 Tuesday Jan 2023

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British flies, British insects, fly, Nemorilla floralis, parasitic fly, parasitoid

Another day, another summer fly. This one, from last May, is a little bristly beauty called Nemorilla floralis, whose name means something like ‘little visitor to the flowery glade’ (according to a tweet by @ivysuckle). Unfortunately, this fly doesn’t live up to its pretty name as it’s a parasitoid, laying its eggs in the living larvae of various micro moths and butterflies.

230117 Nemorilla floralis

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Yellow dung fly

16 Monday Jan 2023

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British flies, British insects, Scatophaga stercoraria, Yellow dung fly

I was going through my ‘pending’ photos and realised how many images I have from last summer that never got posted, just because each day’s walk in the warmer weather often produces several potential blog subjects. So, while we wait for the weather to improve, I’ll share the occasional 2022 find. And here’s one I’m sure many of you have seen as it has a very wide distribution – meet the Yellow dung fly (Scatophaga stercoraria). The etymology of its scientific name explains this little creature’s preferred habitat: Scatophaga comes from the Greek skatophagos, from skat-, skōr excrement and phagein to eat, and stercoraria is from the Medieval Latin stercorarium meaning toilet (stercorary is an archaic name for a place [e.g. a covered pit] for the storage of manure secure from the weather) (Merrian-Webster Dictionary). So, Scatophaga stercoraria is the dung eater from the dung pit.

230116 yellow dung fly

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Insects on Fleabane

21 Sunday Aug 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects, wildflowers

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British butterflies, British insects, British wildflowers, Common fleabane, fleabane, insects on fleabane, yellow wildflower

Fleabane is a godsend. It starts to flower in mid summer and carries on flowering through to early autumn, providing a much-needed food source for a diverse range of insects at a time when many other wildflowers are beginning to wilt and wither. I’ve been accumulating the photos in this video for several weeks, and many of the featured insects have themselves now faded away, victims of the passing of time and also of the sizzling hot temperatures we’ve been experiencing. I’m sure those insects that have managed to survive the hot dry weather have been very grateful for the sustenance Fleabane has provided.

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Oxeyes and friends

03 Sunday Jul 2022

Posted by sconzani in flowers, insects, wildflowers

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

British insects, British wildflowers, insects as pollinators, insects on Oxeye daisies, Oxeye daisy, Pollinating insects

These photos were taken over 3 days, as I meandered around the local fields and meadows. The ‘friends’ are a wide variety of creatures that all pollinate Oxeye daisies just by flitting/hopping/flying from one to the other, including ladybirds and their larvae; an as-yet-unidentified mirid bug; at least two spider species, including crab spiders using their colour to camouflage their presence; a wide variety of flies; crickets young and old; solitary bees; good numbers of Swollen-thighed beetles, male and female; and a very confiding Meadow grasshopper – they usually hop off when I approach. And these are just the insect species I managed to photograph – I know there are more I missed.

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A spring in its tail?

17 Thursday Feb 2022

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British insects, British springtails, insects under logs, Neanura muscorum, springtail

I’ve been log-diving again, checking under small rotting branches and logs to see what might be seen. Woodlice and slugs, small spiders and snails there were a’plenty but the only creature I found with even a modicum of colour was this little springtail. I think this is Neanura muscorum, an insect which couldn’t be less true to its name if it tried – no tail to be seen and certainly not very springy.

220217 Neanura muscorum

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N is for nettle

19 Sunday Dec 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects, plants

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Tags

British insects, insects on nettle, Nettle, Stinging nettle

This is a plug for the much-maligned Nettle, a plant most of us humans quickly learn to recognise in order to avoid its stings, though most wildlife seems well able to avoid them. I’ve read that Nettles support 40 species of insect but I wonder if that number is on the conservative side. Here are a few insects I spotted on them earlier this year: 7-spot ladybird larva, the 1st instar of a Common green shieldbug, Grypocoris stysi, Nettle weevil, the larva of the hoverfly Scaeva pyrastri, and a Speckled bush-cricket nymph.

211219 nettles 7spot ladybird larva
211219 nettles common green shieldbug 1st instar
211219 nettles grypocoris stysi
211219 nettles nettle weevil
211219 nettles Scaeva pyrastri hoverfly larva
211219 nettles speckled bush-cricket nymph

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A Barkfly

24 Wednesday Nov 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Barkfly, British barkflies, British insects, Valenzuela flavidus

Looking for leafmines has had all sorts of spin-off benefits this year, as I’ve learned to recognise more tree species and encountered creatures I’ve never seen before. This little creature is a prime example: it has been confirmed as the Barkfly species Valenzuela flavidus.

211124 Valenzuela flavidus Barkfly (1)

Perhaps due to their tiny size (this one’s c.3mm), Barkflies are much under-recorded – I’d never even heard of them – but, as the Barkfly Recording Scheme website notes ‘The lack of recording ensures that even casual recorders of the group have a good chance of making significant finds. Wherever you live you are likely to turn up species previously unrecorded in the area and may even find species new to Britain.’ Seven new species of Barkfly have been discovered in just the past 10 years. So, that’s another insect group to keep a look out for.

211124 Valenzuela flavidus Barkfly (2)

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Pillars of the insect community

30 Thursday Sep 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

British insects, moth caterpillars, moth larvae, mystery caterpillars, mystery larvae, sawfly caterpillars, sawfly larvae

To showcase their diversity, in colour, size, shape, pattern, habits and hairiness, I’ve been gathering photos of these (cater)pillars of the insect community, the larvae of moths, sawflies, and some mysteries, which could be one of these … or something other. Here they are:

210930 moth 5-spot burnet
210930 moth drinker
210930 moth maiden's blush

Moths: 5-spot burnet (Zygaena trifolii), Drinker (Euthrix potatoria), and the delightfully named Maiden’s blush (Cyclophora punctaria).

210930 sawfly Allantus sp
210930 sawfly Eriocampa ovata

Sawflies: a possible Allantus species (its identity cannot be confirmed as it was on the wrong plant), and the fluffy looking Eriocampa ovata.

210930 mystery (1)
210930 mystery (2)
210930 mystery (3)
210930 mystery (4)

Mysteries: if you can ID any of these, please leave a comment below. Thanks!

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Danger in the daytime

14 Monday Jun 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects

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British insects, Panorpa species, Scorpion flies mating, scorpion fly

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.

210612 scorpion flies

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Gone insecting

11 Friday Jun 2021

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Tags

British insects, insecting

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).

210611 cardinal beetle
210611 click beetle
210611 dock beetle
210611 earwig
210611 fly Nemorilla floralis
210611 Harpocera thoracica - Copy
210611 hoverfly Xylota segnis
210611 insect eggs
210611 Red-and-black froghopper
210611 scorpion fly
210611 st mark's fly
210611 weevil

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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