Show Us Your Bugs

[Geoff F]

Rhingia hoverflies have an amazing tongue.

If you are looking for hoverfly reference material, Mark, I would recommend Britain's Hoverflies by Stuart Ball and Roger Morris. British Hoverflies by Stubbs and Falk is probably still the ultimate work for hoverflies but it is perhaps a little on the 'dry side' and assumes you have a dead specimen plus microscope for identification using keys and drawings.

Britain's Hoverflies on the other hand has lots of real life photos which can be easier to recognise.

So now, a few more recent images from me.

A Common Groundhopper which is similar to grasshoppers but a little shorter.



And some more saucy Weevils. Hazel Leaf-roller Weevils to be precise.



And in reply to Izzie's question. Snakeflies have a two year life cycle where both larvae and adults feed on anything smaller than themselves.

ps. I'm still attempting to identify this creature dressed entirely in black! At the moment I'm thinking about possibly a Solomon's Seal Sawfly or something similar?

[marlunn]

the only thing my poor little book can come up with remotely close is female fever fly Dilophus febrilis but I suspect you have already excluded that on the lack of small spines around the tip of the front front tibia - see what you mean about the sawfly but the antenna are too short ?

Thanks for the tips on the hoverfly book will be in the market for one at the end of the month and seriously love that Common Groundhopper

[JohnRostron]

Here is my contribution to this post -- a recluse spider. My stepson came in and asked me if I know what I am shooting at and I said I don't. He showed me some pictures from his iphone and said it is a poisonous spider called Recluse Spider. I did not get this very well as this is the first time I had used a real macro lens that arrived this morning, so you will all have to forgive me for the little blurry shot...I will improve on this, promise but not the same spider, hopefully...as this one is still frozen...straight from the freezer...

A nice first try Izzie, especially for a beast that is not one of your favourites!

John

[JohnRostron]

Over the years, I have taken many photos of various bugs. Mostly nowhere near as good as what we have been seeing here. These have been on film. Since I have gone digital, I have not taken many that I would wish to show off. This is one of my first. It is a Small White Butterfly feeding on Red Valerian in the garden of the holiday cottage we visit on the Isles of Scilly.



Panasonic DMC-FZ7 with a x1.4 tele-adapter, f/7.1, 1/400, ISO 80.

Comment welcome.

John

[marlunn]

good start Izzie, once you start - your hooked, I look forward to more of your images as you get more experience

John, nice, good angle to show the upper and lower wing detail

[Geoff F]

The antennae length was something which was bothering me, Mark. Sawfly antennae come in various lengths and with equally varied shapes. The number of segments can be from 3 to 30 because it is a very wide grouping.

Checking again with my sawfly identification book I see that the next option is something very similar; an Iris Sawfly - Rhadinoceraea micans which could be the answer because Yellow Flag Iris was nearby. Apparently I have to decide whether the length of antennae segment 8 is 5 x or 2.5x the width.

But there are a few others in the Rhadinoceraea family; and my book only goes to family level. In reality I have had to skip a few stages to get this far because I can't clearly see all the wing veins.

[marlunn]

Geoff, good luck with the length of the antenna segment 8

[flashback]

Just like all things, patience is needed and quick observation. Thanks...

Here is my contribution to this post -- a recluse spider. My stepson came in and asked me if I know what I am shooting at and I said I don't. He showed me some pictures from his iphone and said it is a poisonous spider called Recluse Spider. I did not get this very well as this is the first time I had used a real macro lens that arrived this morning, so you will all have to forgive me for the little blurry shot...I will improve on this, promise but not the same spider, hopefully...as this one is still frozen...straight from the freezer...

Izzie, this looks very much like the brown recluse (Loxosceles reclusa), also known as a fiddleback due to the fiddle (violin) shape on the cephlothorax. One key diagnostic is that brown recluses have 3 pairs (n=6) of eyes rather than the typical 4 pair (n=8). From what I can see there appears to be 3 pair appropriately located.

Their bite (some sources say it is more toxic than a rattlesnake, but upon envenomation the volume of spider venom vs. rattlesnake venom is miniscule) can occasionally cause severe complications (necrosis, sometimes blood infections) but the prevailing wisdom is that most brown recluse bites are misdiagnosed and can be attributed to other causes. Equally important a brown recluse would rather flee than bite and in cases where a person has been bitten, the spider was in clothes or gloves (or the like) and was squeezed to the point of biting. These spiders have very small fangs and can not bite through clothing so it has to be direct, spider to skin contact.

The following should be totally unreassuring - from here - http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7468.html

"Abundance of Recluses

One consistent life history characteristic of recluse spiders is that in the right environment their populations are usually dense. If you find recluses, you do not find one, you find many. The brown recluse spider, Loxosceles reclusa, is a common house spider in the midwestern United States. Examples for the brown recluse include 9 under a piece of plywood in Oklahoma, 52 in an indoor laboratory, 6 under a waterbed frame in Arkansas, 40 collected in a Missouri barn in 1 hour, 44 in sticky traps in a Tennessee home in 1 day, and eight Oklahoma 13-year-olds unknowingly hand-collected about 60 amongst bricks in about 7 minutes (without getting bitten). "

Sweet dreams and don't let the b̶e̶d̶b̶u̶g̶s̶ spiders bit

[Ziggy]

Mark and Izzie nice captures.

[IzzieK]

Thanks for the info, Jack...very scary thing once I saw pictures and pictures as the result of its bite on my stepson's iphone. I was looking for bugs outside the deck when Bill called me and pointed to me the spider on top of the tea towel in my kitchen...IN MY KITCHEN!!! He knows I will not touch it, so he asked for my bug container...giving me that silly look that says "Why? oh why bugs, of all heavenly creatures!" My first task in the morning as soon as I wake up is go out at the back and look for bugs on walls...so I can understand his morning frustration at me...

Thanks Mark and Jim for the comments...the way I am going, I think I will stick to macro but not necessarily bugs...

[marlunn]

having a day off today - taking daughter to balance rehab clinic this afternoon so went out for a wander to local nature reserve this morning - Broad Bodied Chaser / Darter - Libellula depressa. First Dragon of the year for me

[JohnRostron]

Nice picture. These Chasers are usually quite obliging in sitting and sunbathing so you can take a picture!

John

[marlunn]

She was very patient and let me put up my tripod

Another from today. I think its a Tapered Drone Fly - Eristalis pertinax, but await Geoff to confirm or laugh

[Ziggy]

Nice ones Mark.

[bnnrcn]

Lovely colors and composition Mark Your other shots are very nice too.

just been a bad boy and bought a 2nd hand Nikon D7100 for the sigma macro to live on - first shots were okay - this is a small (10mm) hoverfly - I think its Melanostoma scalare - the flowers are forget-me-nots and this is .jpg SOOC about 50% of the frame

[marlunn]

Cheers Jim,

Thank you Binnur

[marlunn]

one from last year, I recalled this one when looking up a hoverfly - large bumblebee size and flight - was fast and its a rubbish shot, but I have never seen one since - I believe its Tachinidae grossa, and it has nasty habits if you are a large caterpillar

[Geoff F]

I did see my first Tachina grossa of the year this week, Mark; but it wouldn't pose for a photo.

Found a couple of freshly emerged Azure Dasmselflies yesterday, but I was without a camera. Still to see the first Chaser.

Regarding that hoverfly. A couple of things to consider there. Colour of the front and mid tarsus, and look at that dark wing stigma mark.

The tibia are partly yellow but the tarsus are definitely black, unlike E. pertinax where they are definitely yellow. The wings nicely show a small sharp edged, virtually square, dark stigma which clearly places it as E. nemorum (previously E. interruptus). All other species have a larger fuzzy edged stigma.

The face has a narrow dark stripe which can sometimes cause confusion with E. arbustorum which has a clean face (or very narrow faint rubbed mark) if the stigma isn't clearly visible.

Those abdomen markings are typical for that species but this is unreliable for identification, particularly when E. arbustorum can be similar.

You often see male nemorum hovering hopefully very close to a female; and it can sometimes be 2 or 3 males all hovering in a 'stack'

[marlunn]

Geoff, many thanks, much appreciated. That's a clincher then, its time to get a good ref book as suggested by you.

[Geoff F]

Gradually catching up on some editing and identification.

A moth which can occasionally be found during the day, but are difficult to approach in daylight and flew away as I was attempting to move round to a more square angle.

Common Carpet Moth



I have previously found a number of Tortoise Beetle species but this one is a bit rarer and a first time for me. Usually occurs near the coast.



Those bright reflective patches made it virtually impossible to photograph so this is the best I could do from several shots and a bit of editing.

ps. It goes under the name of Cassida vittata.