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…
Following on from the last post in Epping Forest, later on in the same day I came across some common toadlets in the leaf litter. They certainly qualify as cute in my book. I also found this Rosel’s Bush Cricket, this individual was one of the less common long winged forms. On a trip to…
Back In July I was at Wake Valley Pond one morning when I came across a southern hawker dragonfly that had just emerged.
I got some close ups of it.
And some different angles.
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…
When at thursley common back in June I tried some pond dipping off one of the board walks. When filling the tray with water before using the ent I scooped up a water spider, which is rather excellent considering Ive only ever seen 2 before. I caught quite a few in the end, they seeme…
Some more from the pond photography session. I found for the first time the larva of a giant horsefly (Tabanus sp.).
It had a weird habit of retracting its head!
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.
Some more photos from Wales now, with photos of a green hairstreak butterfly I found at Dinas Head. I had only seen one green hairstreak before and this male was quite a poser and didn’t fly far when it did take off. So I tried a few shots of it showing the bracken it was…
Here are a few shots of a pond skater a took a few weeks back. These true bugs or heteropterans stand on the surface tension of the water and ‘skate’ across it to catch insects that become trapped in the water. These were all taken using my photographic aquarium, which was full to the brim,…
