What is the UKs ‘best’ invertebrate? Its (just about still) Insect Week so I decided to try and find out. With 1000s if not 10,000s of species to choose from, it was not easy. This list would no doubt be different from any other person, and I tried to make sure I didn’t pick too…
Cast your mind back to early September early last year. Its a bright sunny Saturday morning, but the signs that it is first weekend of September are there, there is some insect life, but not the hordes you get in the peak numbers of May and June, there are some flowers, but many have gone…
The end of April/start of May usual signals the start of the real emergence of insects. There are of course a few earlier risers that emerge earlier in the year, but it this time of year when the greater variety of species start to appear. On a recent lunchbreak spent in Wat Tyler Country Park…
I have decided to write about one of my favourite invertebrates for each day of National Insect week. Day 2 is the Hornet Robberfly. At 25mm long and with its stocky build, the Hornet robberfly Asilus crabroniformis is probably the biggest true fly (Diptera) in the UK. The adult has yellow and black markings of…
A few SHots of a Tabanus Horsefly I managed to get close to. It look like the Dipteran answer to a certain Belgian detective.
Back in May I went hunting for some macro subjects in a nettle bed. I came across this mosquito Also there was this nettle weevil.
One of the stranger finds from a stream kick sample taken in the Cairngorms was this hairy cranefly Pedicia sp. larva. When you mention cranefly larvae, most people will think of the leatherjacket found under lawns eating grass roots, but there are a number of aquatic species too. The thing that surprised me about this…
When dipping the river at Bellever on Dartmoor I found a strange looking tube made of sand. I turned out to be the case of a Rheotanytarsus sp midge larva. Sadly it didnt seem to be occupied, but a new one for me anyway.
Today I’m off to the Launch of the Freshwater Habitats Trust, formerly known as Pond Conservation. I hope to Tweet this evening from the meeting and blog after the event, but to celebrate the launch, here are some phantom midge larva photos. I blogged some of the fascinating things about these brilliant creatures here:
The nettle beds at Strumpshaw Fen where especially fruitful. This cardinal beetle, the red headed species Pyrochroa serraticornis, posed on the nettles for a bit, though the wind made shots a bit more tricky! The mosquitoes were eating us alive, but i did get a nice shot of one!