Insects 2016 part 2

[Geoff F]

I'm not sure about that Portevinia maculata, James. Females are less distinctively marked than males but they still have greyish spots, and clear wings, also orange antennae. So I wonder if it might be a Pipiza species? That would fit with the slightly darkened wings.

Are you in the right area for Chrysotoxum verralli?

These are tricky but close examination of the antennae can be a help. C. cautum has the first segment shorter than the second. With verralli the first and second segments are equal in length. Verralli is also a bit smaller in size.

[Geoff F]

I think your 'beetle nymph' is actually a bug. At the moment I can't think of the name but I did find some similar last year.

The 'micro moth' is a Caddis Fly, but tricky to fully identify.

Compare your 'Ichneumon' with my previous sawfly Calameuta filiformis. I had one today which appears to be C. pallipes; slightly smaller with the hind tibia yellow instead of dark.

Not sure about your other orange fly at the moment.

[James G]

I'm not sure about that Portevinia maculata, James. Females are less distinctively marked than males but they still have greyish spots, and clear wings, also orange antennae. So I wonder if it might be a Pipiza species? That would fit with the slightly darkened wings.

Are you in the right area for Chrysotoxum verralli?

These are tricky but close examination of the antennae can be a help. C. cautum has the first segment shorter than the second. With verralli the first and second segments are equal in length. Verralli is also a bit smaller in size.

Hi Geoff, I did look at P noctiluca as well, but this was a single shot at which point it disappeared. I wasn't able to get enough of a good view of the antennae but they seemed too small for Pipiza. I opted for Portvenia because of the relatively smooth abdomen.

As regards the C cautum/verralli, yes, as far as I can tell both are listed for the Midlands (Wildguides, Ball & Morris). I did look at the antennae segments, but it was a close call on estimating lengths. I couldn't be certain given the angle, but cautum seemed the better of the two!

'beetle nymph' is actually a bug. At the moment I can't think of the name but I did find some similar last year.

The 'micro moth' is a Caddis Fly, but tricky to fully identify.

Compare your 'Ichneumon' with my previous sawfly Calameuta filiformis. I had one today which appears to be C. pallipes;

DUH! never even considered it wasn't a micro moth....Hopefully won't make that mistake again.

Never seen anything like that bug before, so my best guess was that it was a nymph form.

Thanks for the Sawfly, I have two guides but neither had Calameuta examples!

[James G]

On a general note, is it my imagination, or is there a general dearth of butterflies?

I've seen a few whites, a single Skipper and a single Ringlet in the last three weeks or so... oh yes also a small unidentified blue in my garden for about 30 secs.

[Geoff F]

Yes, everybody seems to be well down on butterflies, and moths as well. A lot of those which do appear are in a scruffy condition due to weather damage.

That Calameuta family doesn't appear in most books where the rather large sawfly group is given very little space. In fact the Cephoidea group (which includes Calameuta) is difficult to find in most basic literature. I found some keys among other more general ID keys by Mike Hackson. He has been working through some of the old, and tricky to use, keys which he is updating into a more user friendly form.

At the moment his completed work is a bit patchy so you have to check whether anything is available; but there is certainly some useful stuff there if you are prepared to search around. Try looking at this link which should then guide you to other keys.

https://sites.google.com/site/mikesinsectkeys/

[Geoff F]

I have been spending a bit of time today doing editing and identification catch up, but still quite a bit left outstanding.

Cantharis pallida



Blood-vein Moth

[Geoff F]

For that uncertain bug, James, try the Meadow Plant Bug (Leptopterna dolabrata) to start with. But they are variable and come in both short and long winged forms; and there are a few other rather similar species.

[Shadowman]

I have been spending a bit of time today doing editing and identification catch up, but still quite a bit left outstanding.

Cantharis pallida



Blood-vein Moth

Nice set.

[Geoff F]

Continuing with the Soldier Beetles. Cantharis rufa.



This may help to explain why Dock Bugs (Coreus marginatus) are such a common species.

[Geoff F]

More Soldier Beetles. Rhagonycha fulva.



Common Green Capsid



Hoverfly - Dasysyrphus tricinctus

[Geoff F]

A different species of Horsefly to the usual Clegs. Band-eyed Horsefly - Tabanus bromius



I think this is probably a variation of Meadow Plant Bug - Leptopterna dolabrata.

[Geoff F]

Peacock butterfly caterpillar.



Silver Y Moth caterpillar

[Cantab]

I think this is a hemipenthes morio bee fly.



C&C most welcome. I didn't have my 100mm macro lens on the camera so ended up using my 18-200 zoom at 145mm; 1/200, f11, ISO 200 and on camera flash fill, in bright sun, hand held. I'm not sure whether the clear areas on the wing would be so reflective if I hadn't used the flash.

I uploaded from an image exported from LR with a 1200 pixel long edge and image quality at 90.

[sleist]

[sleist]

[Geoff F]

Was that auto or manual focus, Bruce? It is OK but not totally sharp on the insect. Maybe a bit of hand held movement? I do get a lot of focus problems if I use auto focus because the camera decides to focus on a sharper edged leaf or flower edge instead of where I want the focus.

If you hadn't used flash then one of the other settings would have to be changed to something which would probably have given other problems, although I frequently shoot with Iso 400.

I finish off my shots with a little bit of cloning edit over any of the flash related hot spots on the insect.

Not sure of the reason but you appear to be getting quite a bit of edge artefacts. Is this a substantial resize?

[Cantab]

Geoff, thank you for the comments. Yes, I was using auto-focus with just the centre point (I always have only the centre point active). I tried to have the centre point aimed at just the fly but have some mobility issues so there may have been hand shake as well as not targeting the fly. I've sometimes used manual focus on bugs, with the same level of success as with AF.

And yes, the image is cropped. (The fly is on a dahlia petal.) Any resizing was done automatically by Lightroom when I exported the jpeg for uploading to CiC.

[DickyOZ]

Wanderer butterfly's caterpillar (Monarch to our American cousins) feeding on a Milkweed plant.




A spider's worst nightmare -Spider wasp.

[Geoff F]

Good images, Dicky. It is amazing how these little spider hunting wasps tackle a spider then drag its body into a nest burrow. Something which I have only seen a couple of times. Our alternative wasps are less colourful black or black and dark red.

[marlunn]

Managed to get out for half a day in Lincoln area while up there this weekend - only processed a couple so far, may add a few more later

Longhorn Beetle - Strangalia maculata



Common Blue Damselfly - Enallagma cyathigerum