Any bug photos during July 2015

[Geoff F]

Just a thought, Mark. The tails seem rather orange for Bombus lapidarius so could they be cuckoos? Such as Bombus rupestris which takes over existing Bombus lapidarius nests.

You seem to have beaten me with that hoverfly, Victor. Possibly a Parasyrphus species? Or just occasionally the common Syrphus ribesii can have the abdomen bands broken in the middle.

Something different from my last sunny day. Tachina grossa. Looks like a one inch long bluebottle but it is a different species.



And another oddity, probably Sciara hemerobiodes

[marlunn]

Hmm, good call Geoff, need to push the bee shot to a specialist site to see what they say, love the Tachina grossa, very good shot.

[JohnRostron]

Love the Tachina grossa, very good shot.

+1 to that.

John

[deetheturk]

+1 to that.

John

+2, very nice Geoff!

[Geoff F]

Caught a Shark in my garden!



A Shark Moth - Cucullia umbrantica

Something a little odd from today. Only 6 mm excluding antennae and it wouldn't sit still; plus the reflective surface so not top quality but I thought it might look interesting.



Heterotoma planicoris

Several other shots to sort through but I don't think any of them are going to be significantly better; although the antennae were constantly twitching so there might be a different angle to consider.

[Cantab]

Geoff, if we have any Heterotoma planicoris here, I've never seen one. What a strange looking beast.

It appears to be walking over/navigating around spines on the leaf. What was the plant?

[piggsy]

Closing out the month for me..


All E-P5

Went kind of nuts taking photos of mr (paper) wasp here, I've had dozens of encounters with them over the last year since I started but they're SO skittish and have that garbage wasp (ed - actually on googling this further I'm thinking of soldier flies :P) kind of movement of darting 1-2cm randomly even when they've landed. Very satisfying finding one asleep outside my window

w/ Olympus 60mm 2.8 + Raynox DCR250

http://abload.de/img/p7300105l5sdc.jpg


http://abload.de/img/p7300139wlsxw.jpg

w/ Tokina 90mm 2.5 + Raynox DCR250

http://abload.de/img/p7300023y6sfp.jpg


http://abload.de/img/p73001579gsdo.jpg


http://abload.de/img/p7310088phsfo.jpg


http://abload.de/img/p731010281s14.jpg


http://abload.de/img/p730022160sc9.jpg


Also luckily found out assassin bug nymphs apparently deliver a nasty bite before I went photographing this one. Another one that has been a bastard to actually shoot photos of all this month, buried either too high or too deep in a tree. Finally caught it where it had a good angle for a photo.

ed - also found this while looking for ID info,



made me laugh anyway

[GeorgeM]

Interesting bug. What on earth is it?

Webworm moth?

[Wandjina]

Great photos .... I'm not sure I would want to get THAT close to it.

[Geoff F]

That bug is probably on a bramble leaf, Bruce; there are plenty of them around that site.

Good colours on those, Jim. Particularly the wasp's eyes.

So - Who is going to start off a new thread for August?

I do have some shots to edit but I'm going to be a bit committed with Regatta work next week.

[MatthewWilliams]

not my favorite subject by any means but my sister has a hive in her back yard and i was feeling adventurous...also i got way closer then what my comfort zone was telling me.....