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
A few from yesterday.
Azure Damselflies
This small Bee was found in a cold and sorry state. He spent twenty minutes in my handsbeing heated up and dried off before he eventually flew away.
I don't usually see many Dragonflies, so to stumble across this impressive specimen was a real treat. I think this may be a male Common Hawker?
My bird photos HERE
Cracking shots of the Damsels and the Common Hawker, Paul.
____________________________________________________________________
Tony
My Flickr Photostream
Pleased to see you managed to revive that bee PA, not good here yesterday, three dead ones & no idea why ... not cold, not wet, quite windy though!! Tried to save one poorly one with sugar water but no luck ... Sad!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Thanks Tony. I was really pleased to see the Hawker in particular, as I said, I don't tend to see too many Dragons.
So sad about your Bees Wendy. The Bee on my hand was one of three that I managed to revive yesterday.
Hazel C said: presumably this answered our confusion over how long they spend in the water.
Looks like it Hazel. I'm glad to know that at least two of them have managed to avoid being on the menu of our resident Frog.
Some from back home.
Common Blues in cop.
Broad-bodied Chaser
Large Skipper or is it a Small?
Grayling?
An 'X' rated snippet from my garden yesterday
And a beautiful Peacock butterfly, luckily am inundated with them at present
Great videos Wendy, I really ought to try it sometime. Looking at the Whites, I think Aiki said that if the female is in that position it means that she has already mated & isn't interested. So I think the male probably went off disappointed.
Your Skipper looks like a small one to me TJ, orange tips on the antenna excludes the Essex skipper. How is your weather now? Ours cooled a bit today but still no rain!
Thanks HinNH, interesting fact you remembered Aiki telling us, many Whites around just now & many of them chasing others, lots of that lovely 'spiralling' in the air but too fast for me to capture on film!
I found this quite fascinating object stuck to my garden umbrella today ... a very dessicated shell or case of some insect or moth or something??? Does anyone know what it is from?
Two top views
Underside
Now I've looked at it more carefully I think you are right, Hazel, that it's a Small Skipper.
I'm back home now so normal temperatures have been resumed. The heat in the Camargue was relentless with shade temperatures typically 35/36 C and in the sun probably over 40 C.
WendyBartter said:Does anyone know what it is from?
Nope, but it looks like the abdomen from perhaps a Bee or a Moth maybe.