A couple of years ago I went to Kefalonia, staying in Skala at the south of the island. A decent walk away was Mounda beach near Katelios. This beach is one of the last breeding sites for loggerhead turtles on Kefalonia, a species that is under threat from expanding tourism. However there is a group…
back in June I found some smaller diving beetles that were very dark in colour. I guessed they were no Dytiscus and with a bit of research settled on Ilybius sp. I got some different angles, including this one of the air bubble at teh tip of the abdomen. And my favourite one was this…
A week or so ago I photographed something a bit different, adult woodworm beetles. These emerged from some logs a few days after they were brought inside. I think they are quite cute, though you wouldn’t want to find them on (or in!) your valuable antique furniture! This one fell on his back at one…
I moan about many things in my garden. Backing on to the A12, with very little in the way of bird life (with the untouched bird feeders to prove it), no hedgehogs or thrushes and the odd cat wandering through. However for a few nights in late May and early June one of my favourie…
I’ve been catching up with some editing including some pond creatures and I came across probably my best diving beetle images. I photographed 2 species that day, the black belly diving beetle Dytiscus semisulcatus. And the wasp diving beetle Dytiscus curcumflexus, named after the striped underside.
Here are a couple from my trip to Goring back in May. I finally got a half decent pic of a garden chafer. I also found and photographed my first true cardinal beetle, seperated from the other Pyrochroa species by its black head.
Yesterday I photographed some of the creatures that turned up in a quick dip of a slightly brackish to freshwater ditch in Wat Tyler CP. Here I found what I’m pretty sure is Berosus signaticoillis a type of water scavenger beetle. It is possibly another species but Im pretty sure it is one of the…
Back in May a wasp beetle was found and I got a few photos. It is a type of longhorn beetle that mimics a wasp to fool predators into thinking its dangerous. Also found was this common crab spider.
While photographing the wheatear at Wat tyler CP, I noticed something on its beak. I seems to be some sort of weevil. Possibly Sitona lineatus or s imilar weevils species.
Some more of the pond photos from January. Most of these have had some dust and dirt cloned out of them and a couple, notably the following photo, has had the background touched up. The first photos are of a water louse or slater. They are the aquatic relative of the woodlouse. They are often…