Sunday 17 May 2009

It stopped raining

Photo location:

Hedgerow, Leg 2.

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I still haven't seen a female Orange Tip butterfly this year, but they're obviously around: most specimens of Cardamine pratensis have a single egg. I'll try to follow a few of them as the season progresses.


For the last few years, I've annotated this hoverfly as 'Cheilosia sp.' Today I took images from all angles and have now refined my identification to Cheilosia albitarsis. Most of the identification features are microscopic, although it turns out to be 'dependent on Creeping Buttercup in wet meadows'. Big surprise. The small beast is, of course, the micromoth Micropterix calthella.

And this is a pair of the same micromoth. When I find these 'in cop', one is always dark, the other more bronzy. Dunno which is which, though.


The caterpillar of the Garden Tiger moth is one of the most handsome that we have. No points for the plant.


I initially thought this click beetle was damaged, but the close-up reveals that it is cleaning its left antenna.


The fungal rust Triphragmium ulmariae is very obvious on the undersides of Meadowsweet leaves.

3 comments:

Aynia said...

The garden tiger caterpillar is amazing. I really need to try and perfect my field craft or get my eyes tested....! :)

Gill said...

"The garden tiger caterpillar is amazing." Isn't it just? It looks like one of those furry monkeys with a ruff or something until you realise the scale. Fantastic shot (as is the OT egg).

Like September here in Yorks: bright sun but cold, wind whistling round the windows.

K said...

The garden tiger looks like a Chinese dragon on parade...