More Alluring

I headed out this morning on a whistle-stop tour of a few sites to dangle the Lunar lure. With success - another three sites, albeit in two tetrads. So far it seems that the peak response is within a two-hour window between c9am to midday, with warm sunny days bringing and earlier response and an earlier cessation. Whether I'll get another chance this year I don't know, they may be over by next weekend. I've also avoided heading out to look at a scraggy bone muncher - hurrah!

No moth trap out last night as it was forecast (and did) throw it down in the night, and not much else done today so here's a few snaps while I gather my thoughts.

Conops quadrifasciatus

Eriothrix rufomaculata

Male Beewolf (with a few light drops of drizzle)

Phytocoris ulmi - from the moth trap on Friday night

Retro Rockpooling + More Bugs

I bought some books at the Birdfair on Friday: the new macro moth guide by Sean Clancy, the Collins Fungi guide, the Beetles Checklist by Duff and one of the very generalised Collins guides - this one:

I know that these generalised guides are sometimes a bit limited and are often berated by proper naturalists, but after thumbing through a few times this is my new current favourite book (ie the one I tend to pick up and idly flick through at some point during the day rather than having a need to check something). The photos throughout are brilliant, and it does exactly what I wanted - highlights the commonest coastal wildlife across many different groups. I decided to check out a few photos from previous visits to the beach and suchlike, and managed to quickly identify four new species including these two grainy blown-up extracts from other shots:

Montagu's Stellate Barnacle

Snakelocks Anemone

Looking forward to visting beaches and rockpools sometime soon.

Meanwhile, more bugs. The first two are from a quick walk down the lane yesterday afternoon, the latter two are from the garden MV last night.

Common Froghopper - very variable

Dock Bug - early instar nymph

Allygus modestus - makes the pair for the garden.

Note the dark black line on the vertex (like a pencil moustache).

Field Damsel Bug - on natural eggbox habitat

Also lots of these flies around at the moment ...

Eriothrix rufomaculata

Life In The Garden 17/08/2011

WARNING - lots of photos follow of things that are not birds or moths. Or plants.

Having access to a digital camera and a wealth of on-line reference images and info, means that in this day and age it is easier than ever to become completely distracted for long periods of time, snap away at anything that moves, and identify it retrospectively. Or string it, depending on how good or bad the references are and your photographic skills ....... please let me know if anything below is more stringy than Rab C Nesbitt's vest.

Anyway, I innocently wandered into the garden on Wednesday morning to see if there were any hoverflies about, or maybe another Tree Bumblebee as last year. Before I knew it a couple of hours had passed, the camera battery was dead and I'd added 322 photos to the SD card. Most of the following are new for the garden and me (at least in the sense of trying to name them).
I'll start with hoverflies, headed up by a new one for me and the garden - newly identified thanks to the book I bought yesterday.

Myathropa florea

Volucella pellucens

Volucella inanis

Next up, true Flies. I only started taking shots of these when I noticed a garden first Mesembrina meridiana (which ironically evaded the camera) and lots of Sarcophaga sp. (which I did photograph but I've left them out this time). I grabbed a few shots of other flies, then realised one or two were different again, and before I knew it I was on a fly mission.

Calliphora vicina

Eriothrix rufomaculata

Tephritis formosa

Thaumatomyia notata?

Pollenia sp.

Neomyia viridescens

Lucilia sp.

Phaonia sp.

Face Fly (Musca autumnalis)

Before I end this overly long and illustrated post, some other bits ..

Viburnum Beetle (Pyrrhalta viburni) - destroying my Viburnum tinus

Common Flower Bug (Anthocoris nemorum)

I think this is Xanthoria parietina - a lichen living on a bit of dead Winged Spindle