on the interweb

fine webs on a fir tree in the bright morning light make it look like a Christmas tree, and below an amazingly intricate but random web.

last of the summer wine 3

and a late red admiral basking in the unusually warm October sun, showing the amazing complexity and subtle colouring of its underwings.

web jewel

a spider's web glistening in the early morning dew, looking like an elaborate necklace when seen in close up.

not for the faint hearted

no martins or swallows now, but plenty of garden spiders pretending to be much bigger fiercer animals from above.

the admiral has landed

after a long journey through space the red admiral has landed at tranquility base (notice strong curvature of horizon on this small rocky planet). And this was only after fighting off several wasps to feed on a fallen apple. This was clearly one of those "don't mess with me" types of butterfly.


and much to our surprise the martins are raising another brood. They won't have much time to fatten up before they return to Africa.

on a bed of angelica

a 14 spot ladybird (very small, less than 5mm long and therefore not one of the dreaded variations of the harlequin ladybird) foraging in the seed head of angelica, the flowers of which are very popular with a range of flying bugs (see below)

very beesy dandelion

in a meadow full of flowers it is puzzling to see so many bees on a solitary dandelion. There must be something very special about dandelion nectar.

Harlequin invaders

all of these harlequin ladybirds were on one large piece of hogweed in the meadow today. They are displacing the native two spot ladybird and were not even mentioned in my 1985 edition of the Illustrated book of Insects

Miss best tortoiseshell 2010

the prettiest tortoisehell on the block

summer colours

as the summer draws on more and more of our wild flower seed mix is coming into flower, and with the flowers come a wide range of insects, some too small even for macro photography and I am not buying a microscope for Spot (most useful to find his brain I suspect)

queen to be

it was a calm warm day, so the workers decided to release the queens and drones on the one flight of their lives. This queen to be hadn't quite mastered the art of using all four wings.

more meadow pleasures 5

the common blues have found each other,



and the red admiral is only included to show the beautiful contrast of colours

more meadow pleasures 4

second generation brimstones have suddenly appeared in large numbers, along with commas (much brighter/richer than earlier in the year).

crab spider

a crab spider (Misumena vatia) not very well disguised on some buddleia, waiting for some unsuspecting bee or butterfly to land. Apparently they can change colour at will, and are usually yellow and live on goldenrod. This one seems to have got it wrong.

more meadow pleasures 3 - Cornish fruit flies

and a brilliant small tortoiseshell (bottom), a wall brown (middle) nowhere near a wall but unusually still for this restless butterfly, and an odd shaped fly with a dog on its back (top).

10 August 2010

Thanks to my friends at Wild about Britain, this fly has been identified as chaetorellia jaceae, a fruit fly that lives on knapweed and related species and is used in other parts of the world as a form of biological control for these plant species where they have become invasive. As a group these flies have very elabotrate mating rituals, and often these sorts of colours to act as bayesian mimicry to put off their predators.

later on 10 August 2010

or is it Chaetostomella cylindrica ? This is the definitive fly for a dog's blog.

more meadow pleasures 2

he insects included these common blues (male and female) on meadowsweet, and a red admiral on knapweed

fritillary mating

you may wonder why we have posted two blurry pictures but if you look closely you can just pick out two blurry orange blobs. These are male and female silver washed fritillary butterflies caught during their courtship dance. I have read about this, but today I saw it for myself for the first time. The male barrel rolls around the female while she flies along in a relatively straight line. If she is suitably impressed she lands and he releases pheromones from the linear scales on his fore-wings, and if she remains impressed they mate. It was so soul satisfying to see this private little ritual.

hoverfly wasps

and it is also that time of year again when wasps start causing a nuisance. This little chap is actually a hoverfly mimicking a wasp (otherwise thumb would not be so close)

blue tailed damselfly

common but very striking, this is a male blue tailed damselfly on some hemp agrimony, at Mount Edgecumbe this morning.

,

Small copper butterfly from the side (above) and a crowd of different folk (including a small copper as more usually seen) enjoying some yarrow. Are we in danger of becoming a bug blog? Cassie (Spot's dam) has suffered a major injury to one of her hind legs and her leg has swollen up like a barrel (apparently, so our vet David Ellis says, this is something that happens to greyhound lurcher people) but she has been grounded for a few days and thus we are not going for long walks. It brings to mind that she is 11 years old now and showing some signs of age. What will we do without her?