Oh well, no sooner said than done. All you budding entomologists or photographers or anyone who likes nature, you can put your insect photos here!
I'll kick off with a few that I've had lately. This first is called a Mantis Fly & is a cross between a Fly & Mantis (funnily enough) & is in the Neuroptera family, which is a mixed bunch anyway, my first & I had 3 of them around the moth trap
& a Rhinocerus Beetle which was also attracted to the light & are quite rare now around here, he really was fabulous, very impressive,
& this Frelon was also in the moth trap, but seemed quite docile as long as I kept my distance!
& some Damsel flies, an Azure Damselfly (thanks for the ID Aiki)
a Large Red Damsel
& from early may a proper fly from the Dipteras, anyone know the English name, I think it's latin name is Otites lamed,
I usually only take photos of flies with interesting wings as I am hopeless at identiying them!
Thanks for looking & maybe you can post some of yours!!
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
edgebander said:I`ve a picture on page 8, TJ.
He/she is a fine looking critter. I'll have to keep my eyes open for one of those. My eyes aren't hairy though so I'm at a disadvantage.
I've got another one for you. It was very small indeed. The best I can come up with is a Sphaerophoria sp. but I don't think I'm right and need your expertise.
____________________________________________________________________
Tony
My Flickr Photostream
Spot the Crab Spider on the Escallonia flowers
Easier when it waves a leg in the air.
Don't think I've ever come across one of thos before TJ & I have two Escallonia plants!!
Sitting in the garden at lunchtime today & a rather large dragon comes flying over & promptly disappeared ... until I got a visit from my neighbour with a pic on his cam & asking me what it was!!
It was this beauty
Now why couldn't it have landed in mine??
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
That`s as far as I can get with mine,too.I`m only good to species level,TJ.The finer detail I leave to the experts.
Ace Spider,btw. I want one of those.
I had a look on the French site for the hoverfly Edge & TJ & it said that the males can be narrowed down to individuals but not the females, there are apparantly 16 to choose from!
Lovely dragonfly Wendy, shame it didn't stop in your garden! It looks like a Migrant Hawker (Aeshna mixte).
@ Wendy, very nice migrant Hawker. At least you saw it even if it wasn't obliging enough to land in your garden. I've had a probable one whizzing round my garden but it keeps disappearing over the fence and not landing.
I only spotted the Crab Spider because I was trying to photograph an extremely tiny hoverfly. The way they can change colour to adapt to their surroundings is fascinating.
@Hazel & Edge, at least I got the right group with the hoverfly so thanks for that. These little critters are so small that I'd never have a chance of IDing them without a photo.
edgebander said:Ace Spider,btw. I want one of those.
BTW ... what is that plant in your pic EB? IWOOT!
These are the little b*****s that are in my Victoria Plums! That's not a euphemism by the way. Any idea what they are? Less than a centimetre. Moth larvae?
Unicum arbustum haud alit duos erithacos
(One bush does not shelter two Robins)
Zenodotus (3rd Century B.C.)
A few recent ones,
An insect from the moth trap, this is an American grapevine leafhopper which is harmless in itself, but unfortunately spreads a very nasty vine disease so most vineyard owners spray the plants with insecticde to kill them off, this one got away! It's latin name is Cicadellidae Scaphoideus titanus .
& a couple from yesterdays walk, some mating Pea blue butterflies
& a shield bug known as a Tortoise bug
& from a few days ago, this lovely Brown hairstreak,
& for the Spider lovers we saw at least 6 of these the other day, I think it's known as a Bee spider
Have I found one of the Volucella species? Sorry they are poor photos, I only had my little Canon Ixus with me.