Sunday 27 June 2010

National Insect Week Gallery

I have been too busy writing down stuff I've been watching or compiling records, and generally watching bugs these last warm days to blog, but I have decided to put an end to this by celebrating National Insect Week (21-27 June) with a gallery of the bugs I have been watching. I hope you enjoy them.
Flies: This is a large hoverfly, Vollucella pellucens. I have been watching them today hovering and I tried in vain to get a good shot in flight. This one posed nicely for me though.
 Bees: I had a great time watching Anthophora furcata in my local wildlife garden. This female is gathering pollen from Stachys sylvatica.
 Butterflies: the first ringlet of the year. It was warm and this individual fluttered for quite a while before settling on the grass.
Moths: yesterday I spotted this Narrow Five Spot Burnet atop a Knapweed seed head.
And more bees: After cutting a piece of Circaea luthetiana, this female Leaf-Cutter Bee (most likely Megachile centuncularis) had to retreat and alight again as it couldn't fight the wind carrying the piece of leaf. After a while, it flew away to her nest.
A sunbathing Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium manicatum) female.
Beetles: A female Lesser Stag Beetle walking over some plants on a front garden yesterday. So far, I have only seen females in Hull.
More bees: A Bombus hortorum extends its long tongue before landing in a Digitalis lutea flower. This is the longest-tongued bumblebee in the UK.
A male Colletes daviesanus resting on an Oxeye Daisy flower and...
a female with loaded pollen baskets nearby.
To end, another bee (of couse) a female Anthidium manicatum feeds on a Geranium flower on the summer solstice.

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