This is the carry on thread from "All about Insects 2018" here https://community.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/f/all-creatures/196071/all-about-insects-2018
I had a lovely Minotaur Beetle around the UV trap this morning, my first ever!
Apparantly this is their time of year!
All insects, spiders, beetles, flies etc etc welcome,
Best wishes
Hazel in Southwest France
My great niece sent me a photos of a bug, "What is it?". It turned out to be a type of Oil Beetle & I found that there is a survey going on https://www.buglife.org.uk/activities-for-you/wildlife-surveys/oil-beetle-hunt so come on all you beetle lovers. There is also a useful identification guide on the page.
These are some old photos just to remind you what they look like.
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
__________
Nige Flickr
Not only a bit of sun but a bit of warmth has brought out some of the little beasties and I could get the Macro out. Several butterflies, including Peacocks, Brimstones and my first Orange Tips, but sadly no photos. Quite a few Hoverflies were around like this pollen covered individual.
And I suspect this is a Caddisfly, but there aren't many that can be ID'd from a photo. The odd background is my trouser-leg!
Unfortunately, it no sooner flew off than a Robin, who had been sitting on the table with me, took it in mid air.
I spotted another spider sitting on the water surface and was just about to get a nice, low level shot when it ran towards me. Not to be recommended for any arachnophobes, when you've got a spider filling the view finder in the camera and it suddenly runs straight at you
I'll forgive it though because it then posed for me with its catch
That's one reason why I like doing macro … because you just don't see this any other way.
I was expecting it to be a Raft Spider, which do hunt on water, but it actually looks like one of the Wolf Spiders that you normally find running around in the grass. I didn't know Wolf Spiders were at home on water (although I may have mistaken the ID as spiders are tricky from photos)
Lot to learn
Lots of Dark-edged Bee-fly around this weekend. Zippy little blighters so not easy to catch stationary.
On Primrose
On Cowslip
On ????????? Can't remember the name of this plant
____________________________________________________________________
Tony
My Flickr Photostream