Garden

More stuff from around the garden

Scalloped Oak - Odontopera bidentata

Hiding out in the greenhouse amongst the cucumbers

Marmalade Hoverfly - Episyrphus balteatus

Hoverfly - Sphaerophoria scripta

This was a new one for me although I have since seen a few, both in the garden and out and about. A quite small but striking hoverfly

Hoverfly - Eupeodes sp

Damned hoverflies! I had this down as Eupeodes Luniger until 5 minutes ago and now I'm not so sure. It could be Eupeodes corrollae? Anyway a nice hoverfly and lots of them about at the moment.

Ichneumon wasp

I have a bunch of Nasturtians which have become infested with aphids and they seem  to attract all sorts of wasps and hoverflies. Most of them don't seem to be specifically targeting the aphids , but this one does.

Trench Wood

Flies but they don't Hover.

Conops quadrifasciata

First I thought it was a hoverfly, possibly of the crysotoxum family because of the long antennae .But I couldn't find it in any of the books. Then I thought it must be a wasp but couldn't find it and realised that it must be a fly because of just 2 wings (Diptera) and eventually tracked it down as a conopid fly

Tachina fera

This chap is a real beauty! and BIG. Click on the picture for larger view. thought it was some kind of Horsefly and as there were a lot of these about I was a bit wary of being bitten. However they are pretty harmless unless you are a caterpillar. The young larvae are internal parasites of caterpillars boring inside them.

Forest Shieldbug - Pentatoma rufipes

Easily identified as it has very "square shoulders" compared to most other shieldbugs.

Purple Hairstreak - Neozephyrus quercus

You will have to take my word on the "Purple" as he just did not want to show his upper wings which apparently are indeed purple.

Wasp sp

Not sure if it was a common wasp or not but strinkingly marked and nicely contrasted against the "thistle"

Hoverfly - Dasysyrphus albostriatus

There was a muti headed thistle which was teeming with hoverflies. There were 20 or 30 Marmalade Flies - Episyrphus balteatus and this one who stood out from the crowd.

Marmalade Fly - Episyrphus balteatus

And here are just a few of the Marmalade Flies. They really are abundant everywhere you go at the moment whether that is the garden or out in the wild.

At Home (Sambourne)

Moth Trap...

OK, so I haven't got a moth trap (yet?) but that doesn't stop the house acting a s giant Moth Trap. With the warmer weather with us and the doors and windows being left open Moths are attracted to the house lights at dusk and trapped when the house is closed up for the night. Here are a couple of interesting micro moths.

Plume Moth - Platyptilia ochrodactyla

Demonstrates one of the more unusual of the varied moth shapes

Small Magpie - Eurrhypara hortulata

One I've not seen before, but there are about 2500 different moths in the UK as opposed to about 60 butterflies!

Hoverflies in the Garden

A couple of smaller hoverflies which benefit from photographic enlargement to help identify them, well particularly with my eyesight!

Hoverfly - Syritta pipiens

I could never have identified this with the naked eye and certainly wouldn't have noticed its distinctive thick thighs on it's rear legs

Marmalade Fly - Episyrphus balteatus

Marmalade Fly - Episyrphus balteatus

This is another small hoverfly but a bit more distinctive and quite easy to ID with the naked eye

Grafton Wood

First visit to Grafton Wood since early May and it was a bright sunny day with some cloud and a bit breezy. By the time I had crossed the fields and got to the wood I knew why Butterfly Conservation help run the reserve. Butterflies were in abundance and this was also the case within the reserve. Ringlets were EVERYWHERE and other species seen were Marbled White, Small White, White Admiral, Large Skipper (also numerous), Meadow Brown and a large Fritillaries which I was unable to get good enough views to identify.

Five-spot Burnet - Zygaena trifolii

Ringlet -  Aphanttopus hyperantus

Most commonly seen with closed wings so it was nice to get some pictures with the wings open

Peacock - Inachio io (caterpillar)

I was wondering when the summer hatchings of Peacocks would be on the wing and clearly they are getting there slowly!

Crickets and Grasshoppers

Loads of grasshoppers and crickets in the meadows approaching the wood.

Bush Cricket

The easiest way to tell the crickets from the grasshoppers is by the antenna. The bush crickets have long and slender ones whist the grasshoppers are shorter and thicker. As far as telling which species, however, I'm still working on that!

Grasshopper

Looks like he's been using army camouflage paint!

Grasshopper

Hoverflies

Hoverfly - Chrysotoxum bicinctum

Very pleased to come across this distinctive Hoverfly. An easy one to identify by its markings but also by its unusually long antennae.Compare with other hoverflies

Hoverfly - Episyrphus balteatus

aka the Marmalade Fly

Caught in flight, just about to land.

Hoverfly - Episyrphus balteatus

aka the Marmalade Fly

Hoverfly -  Meligramma trianguliferum

How to get close to a dragonfly

They whizz past you at such a rate that it is nigh on impossible to grab a picture in-flight but they do have favourite perches so look where they land. As you try to get near them they will usually fly off before you are close enough, but chances are that they will come back to the same perch. So whilst they are darting madly round the pool get close to the perch and settle down and wait. If you are in luck they will come back to the perch and you will be close enough to get a reasonable shot. That is what I did for this shoot with a 100mm lens. Exif details tell me I was 1.56m from subject.

Broad Bodied Chaser - Libellula depressa (Male)

abdomens are only blue in mature males. Females are brown.

Longhorn Beetle - Strangalia maculata