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Tag Archives: flies

242/366 Bottoms on brambles

29 Saturday Aug 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, insects, nature, plants

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

blackberries, brambles, flies, insects on blackberries, insects on bramble, wasp

I don’t know about you but, when I’m out walking at this time of year, I’m often tempted to pluck and devour one of the luscious-looking blackberries growing on the bramble-covered fences and hedgerows.

200829 bottoms on brambles (1)
200829 bottoms on brambles (2)

Well, not any more. Not now I’ve seen how many flies like to suck at them and run their dirty little feet all over them. Just look at all those fly bottoms!

200829 bottoms on brambles (3)
200829 bottoms on brambles (4)

And let’s not even mention the very real possibility of getting stung by a wasp that’s jealously guarding ‘its’ berries. From now on, the berries are all for the beasties!

200829 bottoms on brambles (5)
200829 bottoms on brambles (6)

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95/366 The buzz of new life

04 Saturday Apr 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, ladybird, nature, spring

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

bees, British insects, bumblebees, flies, hoverflies

It only takes a few sunny days and warming temperatures to bring out the mini-beasties. These are some of the bees and bumbles, flies and hoverflies I’ve spotted over the past week or so. Oh, and I mustn’t forget, my first 7-spot ladybird of the season.

200404 1 tree bumble
200404 2 Melanostoma scalare hoverfly
200404 3 buff-tailed bumblebee
200404 4 buff-tailed bumblebee
200404 5 eristalis pertinax
200404 6 unknown bee
200404 7 eristalis pertinax
200404 8 lasioglossum sp
200404 9 nomada sp bee
200404 10 hairy-footed flower bee
200404 11 buff-tailed bumblebee
200404 12 hoverfly
200404 13 buff-tailed bumblebee
200404 14 fly
200404 15 7-spot ladybird
200404 16 fly
200404 17 epistrophe elegans hoverfly
200404 18 bee sp

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62/366 A flying start

02 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, spring, wildflowers

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Alexanders, dandelion, flies, hoverflies, solitary bee

A little bit of sunshine and a sheltered spot, plus a few blooming wildflowers – in this case, dandelions and Alexanders, alongside a south Wales coastal road – and out came the flying critters: solitary bees a’buzzing, various species of flies a’flying and hoverflies a’hovering. Spring is off to a flying start!

200302 flying critters (1)

200302 flying critters (2)
200302 flying critters (3)

200302 flying critters (4)

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95/365 Braving the weather

05 Friday Apr 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, insects, nature, spring

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

#365DaysWild, British insects, bumblebee, flies, hoverfly, insects, ladybird

I only managed to grab an hour’s walk today, once again dodging the rain showers that have been rolling in throughout the day. I thought I might blog about the wild garlic that’s covering every inch of the wilder areas in Penarth’s Alexandra Park but decided it would be better to wait until the flowers are at their peak as that would make for better photos. Then, as I was checking out the garlic and taking a few shots, my eye was caught by the number of insects sitting on their leaves, basking in the fleeting patches of sunshine, braving the weather on this mostly grey wet day. So here they are …

190405 braving the weather (6)
190405 braving the weather (3)
190405 braving the weather (1)
190405 braving the weather (2)
190405 braving the weather (5)
190405 braving the weather (4)

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On the scabious

31 Friday Aug 2018

Posted by sconzani in flowers, insects, nature, wildflowers

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Tags

#FloralFriday, bees, British insects, British wildflowers, bumblebees, Devil's-bit scabious, flies, hoverflies, insects on scabious, Lavernock Nature Reserve, Succisa pratensis

180831 devil's-bit scabious (1)

Devil’s-bit scabious (Succisa pratensis) has a beautiful flower that paints the wildflower meadows at Lavernock Nature Reserve in shades of purple lusciousness and provides some very welcome late summer nectar and pollen to a host of insects, particularly bees, flies and butterflies.

180831 devil's-bit scabious (5)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (2)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (3)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (4)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (6)

And that name? Well, the story goes that the devil was not pleased that the plant’s medicinal properties were healing the skin conditions of people suffering from bubonic plague and scabies so, in a fit of rage, he tried to kill off the plant by biting off the ends of the plant’s roots. Ever the party pooper!

180831 devil's-bit scabious (9)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (11)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (8)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (7)
180831 devil's-bit scabious (10)

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It’s a biggie

05 Sunday Aug 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Britain's largest tachnid fly, British flies, diptera, flies, fly, Tachina grossa

At first glance I thought this big brute was a hoverfly, ’cause I know there are some very large hoverflies, but one look at those eyes told me otherwise. Meet Tachina grossa, the largest Tachnid fly in Britain and Europe.

180805 Tachina grossa (4)

As you can see, it feeds on pollen and nectar and, though it’s harmless to us humans, it’s no friend of moths. The female Tachina grossa lays her eggs on living larvae, in particular the large hairy caterpillars of the Oak eggar moth and the Fox moth. The fly larvae eat the caterpillars from the inside, eventually but not immediately killing them.

180805 Tachina grossa (1)
180805 Tachina grossa (3)

So, it may look kind of cute in the photograph below but I’m just glad I’m not a large hairy caterpillar.

180805 Tachina grossa (2)

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On the Bramble

13 Wednesday Jun 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, wildflowers

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#30DaysWild, #plantsforpollinators, #WildflowerHour, 30 Days Wild, bees, bramble, bumblebees, flies, hoverflies, Rubus fruticosus agg

Last Sunday, on #WildflowerHour, the challenge was to find #plantsforpollinators, i.e. to find wildflowers that support a variety of the insects that act as pollinators. I had found several different insects on Bramble flowers last week so posted a series of photos that showed them. And that gave me the idea for day 13 of #30DaysWild, namely to see what insects I could find on the local Bramble bushes. It was overcast and a bit cooler today, so I didn’t see as many butterflies as last week, but there were bees and bumblebees, flies and hoverflies, one butterfly, and a number of bugs and beetles. Here they are …

180613 on the bramble (1)
180613 on the bramble (2)
180613 on the bramble (3)
180613 on the bramble (4)
180613 on the bramble (5)
180613 on the bramble (6)
180613 on the bramble (7)
180613 on the bramble (8)
180613 on the bramble (9)
180613 on the bramble (10)
180613 on the bramble (11)
180613 on the bramble (12)
180613 on the bramble (13)
180613 on the bramble (14)
180613 on the bramble (15)
180613 on the bramble (16)
180613 on the bramble (17)
180613 on the bramble (18)

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Signs of spring: minibeasts

03 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

bees, bumblebee, flies, hoverflies, ladybird, minibeasts, signs of spring

‘If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.’
~ E. O. Wilson (1929 – ), American biologist, environmentalist, author

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180401 minibeast (4) Honey bee
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180401 minibeast (6) fly
180401 minibeast (7) fly
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180401 minibeast (9) Eristalis tenax
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

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Birth notice

17 Saturday Mar 2018

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature, plants, wildflowers

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Ficaria verna, flies, fly, leaf mines, leaf mining fly, leafminer, Lesser Celandine, Phytomyza ranunculi

I was handing out the cigars last Monday!
Now, you might well think me more than a little mad to be excited about the birth of a fly but this was the first time I had tried rearing one … and it was actually successful, which bodes well for the fact that I’m intending to take part in a fly-rearing investigation this summer (more on that closer to the time).

180317 Phytomyza ranunculi (2)
180317 Phytomyza ranunculi (3)

The fly is Phytomyza ranunculi, a creature whose larvae often make their home in the leaves of Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna). I blogged about this leafminer, its larvae and the pupa here, and it is that pupa which finally hatched earlier this week. I had been told it would take about 3 weeks to hatch but it was, in fact, longer than that – it was 6 February when I found the pupa and 12 March when it hatched, so 34 days in total.

180317 Phytomyza ranunculi (1)

Now, here I must admit to a rookie error. As it was well over the 3 weeks, I had almost given up on its hatching so, on Monday night, when I had a sudden notion to open the container, I didn’t look inside first. The fly popped straight out, perched on the edge for a very brief time – and I managed to get just one photo, and then it flew off. I’ve searched for it in my flat, and it did a quick fly by when I was washing the dishes yesterday, but I haven’t been able to find it, neither to take more photos nor to let it outside.

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November at Cosmeston

02 Saturday Dec 2017

Posted by sconzani in autumn, insects, nature, parks

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Tags

British dragonflies, Common Darter, Cosmeston Lakes Country Park, flies, fly, hoverfly, Mary Gillham Archive Project

I’ve only had a couple of visits to Cosmeston Lakes Country Park this month because my volunteer work on the Mary Gillham Archive Project has been taking up a bit more time as we try to get as much as possible done before the project effectively finishes at Christmas – though, having said that, I did spend four hours at Cosmeston last Friday trying to replicate, for the project website, photos Mary had taken in the early days of the park. These are a couple of those: Mary’s photo of the west lake in September 1987 on the left, and my photo from the same spot thirty years later on the right.

171202 Cosmeston west lake Sep 1987
171202 Cosmeston west lake Nov 2017

But I digress … apart from the berry-eating visitors, the Redwings and the Mistle thrushes, and finally managing to grab a couple of half-decent photographs of a Green woodpecker, I haven’t found anything particularly noteworthy bird-wise at Cosmeston during November. I have, however, been impressed by the numbers of insects still around, despite the fact that it has been noticeably colder, with daytime highs in the low teens and several overnight frosts.

171202 common darter (1)
171202 common darter (2)
171202 common darter (3)
171202 bumblebee

On 5 November, the ‘fireworks’ at Cosmeston were these lovely little Common darters. In an area shaded from the cool westerly wind but warmed by the bright sun, each had claimed itself a fencepost to bask on. And, nearby, a lone bumblebee looked like it wanted to snuggle for warmth into this seed-head ‘duvet’ of Old man’s beard (Clematis vitalba).

171202 fly (1)
171202 fly (2)
171202 hoverfly

On 24 November, though my focus was on finding the exact spots where Mary had taken her photos, I did still have one eye on the wildlife and noticed quite a lot of flies about. Like the dragonflies of two weeks earlier, these two flies and one hoverfly were favouring sheltered spots on wood to make the most of the sunshine.

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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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