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Post by nomad on Jun 28, 2017 12:44:58 GMT
An example of the rather scarce Heath Potter Wasp, Eumenes coarctatus Linnaeus, 1758, collecting clay from a fallen tree root to take back to a heather sprig, where it will be building a small round clay nest in which to lay its eggs among a well stocked insect food larder containing small caterpillars. In this Britain this species is confined to the heathland in Southern England. This one was photographed in the New Forest, Hampshire in May.
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Post by nomad on Jun 28, 2017 9:03:27 GMT
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Post by nomad on Jun 26, 2017 15:20:58 GMT
"I remember an afternoon in Savernake Forest when, following some hours of cloud, the sun at last broke forth and the High Brown Fritillaries came floating down in numbers from the Oak trees around me.” E.B. Ford , Butterflies 1945 .
The High Brown Fritillary, Argynnis adippe is a frequent species in most of Europe but in Britain it is an endangered and "protected" butterfly. From the 1950s onwards there was a huge decline of this species in the woodlands of England and Wales. There were changes in the traditional management of our woodlands, such as a cessation of coppicing and the widespread planting of conifers. In Southern England only on a few bracken covered slopes in Devon did the butterfly hang on, and here only active and constant conservation methods, creating small clearings in the bracken where the foodplant violets can grow, have ensured its rather fragile survival there. Most colonies were lost and today only one small population remains in Wales. The bastion of Argynnis adippe remains a few limestone hills in North-west England. On the very steep bracken covered slopes of Devon, A. adippe flies with the two other large fritillaries Argynnis paphia and Argynnis aglaja. The main nectar source here for A. adippe is Marsh Thistle, Cirsium palustre and to a lesser degree Bramble, rubus species. As clouds moved in, we watched as the butterflies left the bracken covered slopes and ascended into the nearby Oak trees to rest and then as Ford noted to descend once more as the sun appeared. All images Devon, June 2017. Argynnis adippe males.
] Argynnis adippe females. The Habitat of Argynnis adippe. Argynnis paphia. Vanessa atalanta joins the Fritillaries.
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Post by nomad on Jun 24, 2017 12:15:11 GMT
Looks like a tube web spider, if it has large green fangs then Segestria florentina.
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Post by nomad on Jun 23, 2017 19:13:09 GMT
The bizarre fly, Ogcodes pallipes larvae is an internal parasite of spiders, it overwinters in the host body, it continue growing until the following Spring, then it emerges to pupate which finally kills the dying host. The female can lay up to 4000 microscopic eggs and the tiny (0.3 mm) larvae actively seek out spiders to parasitize. I believe that it is a female that I photographed on Whitbarrow Scar.
Flies of this family have no functional mouthparts so are unable to feed as adults. This species is indeed rarely found, and may be short-lived.
I wonder why the head is so small in relation to the large body, any theories.
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Post by nomad on Jun 23, 2017 13:33:35 GMT
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Post by nomad on Jun 23, 2017 9:51:17 GMT
I believe it does not really matter at home, although I now tend to steer away from very heavy and large books . The size that really matters is indeed the rucksack field guide.
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Post by nomad on Jun 21, 2017 18:07:31 GMT
There are four species of the genus Criorhina in UK, all are rather scarce insects and they are superb bee mimics. The most frequent is Criorhina berberina. This hoverfly occurs in two very different forms. The type form mimics the Tree Bumblebee, Bombus hypnorum and the buff coloured form oxyacanthae is a mimic of the Carder bumblebees like B. pascuorum.Criorhina berberina is usually found in Ancient Woodland. The larvae in the UK occur in old rotting stumps of a number of broad-leaved trees but in mainland Europe, coniferous trees are also used. The following images were taken in May-June in Savernake Forest in Wiltshire, here the most frequent form is oxyacanthae. I have seen the type form in this locality on several occasions visiting Hawthorn flowers, Crataegus monogyna, usually high up. Criorhina berberina type form. Savernake Forest May 2017. Criorhina berberina f. oxyacanthae Savernake Forest May & June 2017,except the last image which was taken in June 2016.
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Post by nomad on Jun 21, 2017 17:16:51 GMT
The Northern Brown Argus, Aricia artaxerxes Subspecies salmacis Stephens, 1828 occurs only in Northern England, while the nominate race with the pure white forewing spots is endemic to Scotland. Here are some further images of A. artaxerxes salmacis from Yewbarrow (June 2017), a wooded hill with grassland at its top, situated at Witherslack in Cumbria. The bottom image was taken at Latterbarrow NR, a lower site with open limestone grassland also near Witherslack. It will be noticed that the males have a black discoidal spot in the upper forewings, while the female has white around the upper forewing discoidal spot. Interestingly the female shown here also has white upper hindwing spots. Habitat of Aricia artaxerxes salmacis . Yewbarrow, Witherslack, Cumbria. The higher limestone hill in the background is Whitbarrow Scar. A. artaxerxes salmacis. Yewbarrow, Cumbria. 1-3. Male. 4. Female. A. artaxerxes salmacis male, Latterbarrow, Cumbria.
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Post by nomad on Jun 21, 2017 7:26:12 GMT
Thank you Olivier for your comments. I agree habitat protection is the key but many habitats in the UK are only kept rich in insects by good management of that habitat. Many insects have adapted to man made habitats here over thousands of years where there was traditional grazing and coppicing.
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Post by nomad on Jun 20, 2017 9:36:23 GMT
Villa cingulata in the Cotswold Hills. I was lucky enough to photograph the scarce Villa cingulata recently in limestone grassland of the Cotswold hills in Gloucestershire. There is a good population at one NT site here. Although this species is known to visit flowers, the ones I observed were all flying low to ground among the herbage. I believe the images here are of females, which have more abdomen pale stripes, and the one shown previously that I photographed in 2016 in a Wilts meadow (see above) is certainly a male. There was a few of the smaller males about but due to the hot weather, they flew low to the ground without resting. Notice that the female in one of the images, resting on the flower= Salad burnet, Sanguisorba minor, is caught in the act of dropping an egg, almost certainly near a solitary bees nest. Watching them , it is amazing to think these bee-flies were were thought to have disappeared from the Cotswold Hills during the 1930s and have recolonized a few sites, being first seen again in 2000. Villa cingulata mirrors somewhat the butterfly Lysandra bellargus, which became extinct in the Cotswolds in 1962 and which spread back into those limestone hills at the start of the new millennium. Both the bee-fly and the butterfly need short turf to survive, which certainly shows that if you manage the habitat in a suitable way, it is not impossible for insects to return once more to their original location. Villa cingulata females and habitat, Limestone grassland.
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Post by nomad on Jun 19, 2017 20:21:20 GMT
The Winter in the UK was very mild and then the weather was rainy and now its very warm. Ticks are everywhere this year, being common where I never had a problem before. I agree with Olivier when they are this abundant, they spoil a day in the field, which should be an enjoyable experience. Yes at first they are very small and very hard to miss. Hopefully the Sawyer SP657 Permethrin Premium Insect Repellent (from Germany) arriving tomorrow will do the trick, ticks, who wants to keep looking at their clothes and see these small arachnids everywhere and a body search and finding stowaways. I think they are much more common nowadays in the UK, a unwelcome and another bi- product of global warming. I used to run around those fields as boy with a butterfly net in shorts and t-shirt, I never got a single tick, "ever", they just were not there or they were very rare!! Now you have to go into the British countyside like some sort of SAS soldier on an expedition into the jungle
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Post by nomad on Jun 19, 2017 6:42:34 GMT
You need Permethrin to repel ticks I have bought some Permethrin spray but I never liked the idea of putting an insecticide directly on cloths. The makers say its safe to use. I try it when I next go into the forest. The UK does not seem to sell Permethrin treated cloths.
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Post by nomad on Jun 18, 2017 16:27:12 GMT
Very true but I get away from the concrete as much as possible and have spent most of my free time roaming the countryside but have never experienced anything like what I encountered on Whitbarrow Scar. I pity the cattle which graze that area!!
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Post by nomad on Jun 18, 2017 9:39:58 GMT
This is the strange Black-rimmed Hunchback = Ogcodes pallipes Latreille 1812 of the Acroceridae (Hunchback-flies) family. It is a nationally scarce UK fly that has been recorded from Chalk Grassland in Southern England but in 2014, Howard Bentley of the British Entomological and Natural History Society recorded this species to be common on Whitbarrow Scar, a limestone hill in Cumbria in Northern England. Here recently I photographed one on a dull overcast day and this was obtained by sweeping with a net. The only example I found. The habitat is outstanding open Karst landscape with Junipers, eractics and grikes etc, all left over from the Ice age. Unfortunately due to the mild Winter and Spring weather, Whitbarrow Scar swarmed with the loathsome and dangerous disease carrying ticks of all shapes and sizes, there were just legions of them, ever marching upwards and although the weather was better the next day, I decided prudence was better than valor in spite of going such a distance to find a particular rare insect that inhabits this limestone grassland, which I did not find. It took a brave man just to put your hand in that net bag. Ouch. What was needed up there was duck taped gaiters and disposal all in one suit. Shirt in pants, socks over boots, arms covered were no defense at all. I see now why the walkers are content to stay on the paths and only a entomologist or naturalists will visit such an area. Ogcodes pallipes Open Juniper woodland with limestone grassland on Whitbarrow Scar habitat of Ogcodes pallipes and other rare insects.
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