New camera and other stuffs

So I bought myself a Canon 70D. The EOS 350 had served me well for nearly 10 years, so it was certainly time for an upgrade.

The 70D has far too many features to discuss here, but it has a few that I am already finding indispensable. Firstly, it has a revolutionary new focussing system, which enables it to more or less instantly decide which direction (nearer or further) to go when focussing. The 350 was fast, but the 70D is near-instant, which is crucial when photographing insects. A fully-articulated rear screen enables me to take shots above my head or down at ground level. 20 megapixels means I don't have to get so close, so depth of field can be better. It can operate over wi-fi, so uploading images means less wear and tear on memory card transfers from camera to computer and back again. Video mode means I can tag images with a piece of voice annotation.

Here are a few shots:

This is the 10mm. micromoth Celypha lacunana, which is out in very large numbers on my local hedgerow:

The micromoth Celypha lacunana

 And this is the strange-looking hoverfly Xylota segnis:

The hoverfly Xylota segnis

The first time I saw it running quickly over leaves, I thought it was a wasp of some kind with those long, grasshopper-like rear legs.

Formica fusca is the ant which is most numerous in my heathy area, and they can often be seen climbing Willow bushes to 'milk' their aphids. This one was behaving very strangely, cropping the fine hairs from a Bramble leaf. I have absolutely no idea why it was doing that.

Formica fusca, an ant

Orchids started flowering last week, so now is the time to see them at their best.

Common Spotted Orchid, with a touch of Heath Spotted

'Cleaner' Common Spotted Orchid

I also took a record shot of the white version of Bush Vetch, which is still slowly expanding its range along a ditch:

White variant of Bush Vetch

 It's still early days for the camera, but I think the results are shaping up well for the future.

Despite the rain

The weather continues to be very unsettled, but at least the rain does stop for a little while from time to time.

The parasitic ichneumon wasps are becoming very numerous at the moment, which makes sense, because now is the time when their caterpillar hosts are around in large numbers. Ichneumons are extremely difficult to identify to species since the literature is fragmented and it takes microscopic analysis to separate them. This is compounded by the fact that our 3000 or so species converge on a very small number of colour patterns across all families. Very few can be identified by sight, although I can do a couple. Achaius oratorius is one of the larger species at 3 cm. long:

The Ichneumon Achaius oratorius

Another one was kind enough to pose for some close-up shots:

Female Ichneumon wasp

That medium-length ovipositor suggests that this species parasitises larvae which live inside thick-stemmed plants, such as umbellifers.

This next one compounds the colour pattern problem. If you compare it with the sawfly from here, you will see that sawflies and ichneumons also converge on very similar patterns.

Ichneumon wasp

A couple of posts ago, I showed the Banded Snail. This is the very closely related Dark-lipped Banded Snail - Cepaea nemoralis:

Dark-lipped Banded Snail - Cepaea nemoralis

New to the site.

Every clump of Raspberry plants has a few Raspberry Beetles flying around:

Raspberry Beetle - Byturus tomentosus

The grubs of this beetle are the white 'worms' that are frequently found inside the fruit.

The very delicate Lesser Stitchwort is currently in flower, and can be seen climbing through grasses and other flowers, using them for support:

Lesser Stitchwort

Neoascia podagrica is the smallest hoverfly that I have found on the patch. It's never found far from lying water, and this specimen is on an opening flower of Tormentil:

The hoverfly Neoascia podagrica on Tormentil

Micromoths are also very numerous at the moment, with new species appearing daily. This is the very common Celypha lacunana, which feeds on a wide range of plants.

The micromoth Celypha lacunana

Most micromoths feed on a single plant species or sometimes on a family of plants, but Celypha lacunana has a very wide range of foodplants, including Male Fern:

Larva of Celypha lacunana on Male Fern

This flexibility of choice of foodplants is clearly one reason for its success.

I usually associate the micromoth Eupoecilia angustana with later months of the year, but this is an early year, despite the awful weather.

The micromoth Eupoecilia angustana

Lastly, a new micromoth for this site: Incurvarea praelatella. The larvae feed on various members of the Rosaceae family of plants; probably Meadowsweet in this area.

The micromoth Incurvarea praelatella

Other members of the family are leaf-miners.

Calm before the storm

Sometimes art and science come together. This shot of an Ichneumonid on Cleavers has a very pleasant symmetry:

As I was selecting the shots, I found this one with two minute Ichneumonids, which I estimate were between one and two millimetres long. Notice the transparent 'hooks' which give the plant its 'stickiness':

Liriomyza congesta is a new-to-me leaf-mining fly which mines various members of the Pea family. I found it on Meadow Vetchling:

The diagnostic features of this mine are the green frass with black dots.

As if we needed confirmation that we are heading nose-first into the darkest depths of winter, I found my first specimen of Rhagonycha fulva for this year. These usually emerge after June 21st., when the larger Umbellifers (Hogweed, Angelica....) are starting to flower.

And this closely-related (but very much smaller....6mm.) member of the Soldier Beetle family is also new to me. It looks closest to Malthodes mysticus:

This handsome-looking chap is one of the Tetanocera, or Snail-killing flies. These lay their eggs close to snails, which then eat the eggs. The larvae then hatch and consume and kill the snail:

Snipe flies are fearsome predators, taking other insects in mid-air:

The micromoth Celypha lacunana is around in huge numbers at the moment:

The other day, I showed the Buff Tip moth taken at night with flash. Here's a daytime shot: