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
Thanks PA, must have been a pretty large Bee, in hindsight realised that I didn't give any indication of size (new to this lark!)
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
WendyBartter said: (new to this lark!)
I don't think it's off a Lark, there would be feathers on it.!! :-)
My bird photos HERE
Ha ha my Caledonian wise guy who makes me laugh!!
Is that inches or centimeters on your scale?? Not that it helps me that much.! If it appeared overnight it must have crawled there & hatched out?
Inches HinNH & it could have been there for a couple of weeks as was on outside of umbrella & it's not pulled down often!
This is pretty amazing
Featured on BBC Springwatch FB page & copied link from YT!
Wow, I'm not a great fan of Springwatch (too much running around & sensationalism?) but that is impressive.
Still no wiser on your shell, but my brain cells are slowly absorbing it (along with a glass of rosé)!
No booze here but have been googling & it does resemble the dried chitinous exoskeleton of a bee ... ooooh, don't I sound learned?? Ha ha
You've not been influenced by your video have you?
Does help when one has such visual experience of how they are made ... strangely enough, it came as a complete surprise to see how maggot like they are to begin with ... had never actually given the matter any thought before, they just 'were' !!!
My new 'book at bedtime' is the life cycle of the Honey Bee!