Post your insects

[jprzybyla]

Here is one I captured recently. I think it is a Katydid.

[Cantab]

Joe, quite a stunning photo. Did it pose for you or were you chasing it around with your camera?

[Letrow]

A few recent bumblebees







Finally a weekend without too much wind.

[Geoff F]

Francesca. Not absolutely certain about the hoverfly but the black abdomen areas seem triangular; which would make me consider Meliscaeva auricollis. They can be a bit variable.

And for the butterfly. My first thoughts would be for a rather pale Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina). But you do get quite a few more species than we find in the UK, so it might be something else.

Here is a fly which is smartly dressed, but a thoroughly nasty beast.



One of the Horseflies. Tabanus bromius.

[Franci]

Bruce, thanks for your appreciation. Geoff, definitely you are right about Maniola jurtina. As for the hoverfly, I am still uncertain, in all the pictures I found of Meliscaeva auricollis, hindlegs tend to be darker than in mine. Your horsefly is great!

[Franci]

Peter, #3 is cute!

[Letrow]

Beautiful detail on that horsefly Geoff and good lighting.

[Geoff F]

Francesca. Meliscaeva auricollis is very variable in colouration, particularly those which develop during cooler conditions which can be very dark with silver spots.

With regard to the paler versions. The critical points are pale abdomen side hair; a pale scutellum; pale not black wing stigma; abdomen spots which slope forward at the inner ends, particularly on tergite 2.

Leg colours can be variable.

But there is one southern species, which is rarely found in the UK, that may also be worth checking out. Meligramma euchromum.

And for those of you who like seeing fierce Horseflies . . .

One which is a frequent problem with walkers and countryside workers. Known in the UK as the Cleg Horsefly (Haematopota pluvialis)



Smaller than the previous species but their painful bites often get infected. Some were becoming too much of a problem for me; which is why this one is now an ex-horsefly and is photographed in unnatural surroundings!

[Msippibelle]

Some type of skipper butterfly at Noxubee Wildlife Refuge. Photo made with Olympus OM-D and Pany 100 - 300 mm lens.

[Geoff F]

Under normal circumstances I would have regarded this snap of a hoverfly about to fly off as being a failure because the head isn't sharply focused. But it perfectly shows everything required for a definite identification.



Platycheirus granditarsus female.

I don't think I would ever have identified it from this side view.

[Geoff F]

And an odd bit of behaviour which I haven't seen before.

This Large Red Damselfly bent its abdomen around so it could scratch the abdomen tip with its hind legs.

[Geoff F]

My first Ringlet butterfly of the year.



One characteristic with these Eristalis nemorum (previously interruptus) hoverflies is the way males hover above females.



Sometimes several males will form in a stack, like this. One desirable female had three males above her but she wasn't interested in any of them.



One day, I'm going to get a perfect photo where male and female are facing the same direction and both perfectly focused.

[orlcam88]

So, my fear of the end of the world has been delayed. The insects are now starting to appear in backyard. I guess it's a late start of the year. I do have an abundance of mosquitoes though! Below are from a nearby garden though:

An Eastern Tiger Butterfly with a bit of it's tail teared off.


I'm assuming this is a moth but not sure what it is:


I'm not sure what this one is either but I liked this shot:


I think this is a cabbage moth?



A Green bottle fly?

[Geoff F]

#2 could be some form of daylight moth but I wonder about something along the lines of our UK Skipper Butterflies; Hesperiidae family.

The Cabbage Moth is a butterfly here. Large White (or Small White) sometimes known as Cabbage White Butterfly; Pieridae family.

The last fly certainly looks like one of the Green Bottle family, but a group which is surprisingly complex and difficult to fully identify.

[orlcam88]

I thought these were cute little bees with orange boots but when looking up to see what they are, they resemble killer bees. These are the first time I've seen them in my backyard. I hope I'm mistaken.

[Cantab]

Cute bees with orange boots. I hope I don't have any! But nice photos. I'm going to have another go at bee photos in the next day or so and see if I get anything worth posting.

[orlcam88]

Cute bees with orange boots. I hope I don't have any! But nice photos. I'm going to have another go at bee photos in the next day or so and see if I get anything worth posting.

I did some more research and I'm probably way off. Those boots are used to store pollen. The photo's that I was comparing mine too had those also when I found the killer bees. But I started seeing them in other bees so I searched some more and found that this is where some bees keep their pollen. They also say only an expert can determine if they are killer bees. So what do I know.

[Geoff F]

Something from my day of helping with the plant counting this weekend.

A Tortoise Beetle larvae



Looks like an alien from another world!

Also an adult. There are several similar species but I think this Tortoise Beetle is Cassida murraea

[Richard24]

Leaf-cutter bee (Megachile centuncularis) building her nest in a man-made nest box in my Mum's garden. Was pretty fast moving and taken without flash. Cropped and sharpened a little in Lightroom.

[Cantab]

Richard, an interesting photo. I'd never have thought that bees had the where-with-all to carry anything except pollen. Do you know what they do with the piece of leaf: food? next material?