Here's some more from that Greek trip, a mixed bad of inverts:
These first couple are from the car park area at the hotel just outside of
Athens before heading home, where lots of stuff was just a lot bigger than I'm
used to. These ants were (relatively) massive with huge jaws. Believe they are
some type of 'Carpenter Ant' Camponotus sp.
And on the same big theme, this Psychid case was attached to a kerbside next
to a group of conifers. No idea on species.
All of the following were just around the same two areas near Kamina as in the
last post.
Think I've only seen one Snakefly in the UK, before I was bothered and it was
not identified. This one - I think - looks a good match to
Raphidia mediterranea.
This darter was in the car park of the hotel at Kaminia. I mulled over it for
a while before realising it is a female Broad Scarlet (Crocothemis
erythraea).
I think this funky-looking shieldbug is Carpocoris mediterraneus.
I didn't realise until I just checked, but this here blog has existed for 14
years almost to the day (I should have looked a couple of days ago on the
7th). Within that time, I've posted countless images and endless streams of
nonsense. Occasionally the blog has lapsed into complete hiatus, sometimes I
have a surge of enthusiasm. Regardless, I have used the blogger label function
liberally over all of those years.
Ultimately the blog serves one key purpose - for my own reference and
recollection. I often flick back through old posts, and sometimes I scan
through the labels and remind myself about a species / place / time. It's also
not unusual for me to notice a label and have no clue what it refers to until
I click it. And that happened again earlier this evening.
"Kaminia"
It was only when I pulled up the posts with this label that I remembered a
business trip to Greece back in April 2015. In fact it was the last overseas
business trip I made before changing my role from Quality Manager to
Manufacturing Manager; visits to other plants have been very few indeed since
then. The trip was a week-long activity in one of our plants, referred to as
Patras albeit actually a reasonable drive away from the city. Greece is a
quirky shape with lots of islands, so to save you Googling here are some maps
to give some reference:
Patras a good three hours drive west of Athens (c130 miles). It seems even
longer when driving on the wrong side of the road in an unfamiliar hired
automatic car ....
Zoomed in a bit, the green dot is Patras (Greece's third largest city and the
regional capital of Western Greece, apparently), and the red dot is the large
industrial estate where the plant I was working at is.
Zoomed in a bit more again, the red dot is the plant and the cyan dot is where I
was staying in the coastal town of - yes - Kaminia. And the yellow dots ...
Whilst I was there for a week, I did manage a couple of quick half-hour or so
forays at the yellow dots with the camera with the intention of snapping any odd inverts or birds
I saw. One spot was literally some roadside scrub, and one was a pull-in right
alongside the coast with some scrub. Neither looked anything like promising,
but honestly it was ridiculous how much activity there was despite it being
April and there still being snow on the mountains. I had no net or pots of
course, but a lot of stuff was easily snapped or coaxed onto the hand to try and get a
shot out of the glare of the sun.
I've already posted a number of images from this trip (hence the couple of labelled
posts) - a few red and black hemipteran species and a number of weevils. But
looking back to my photos I had plenty more that have never been shared. So
now is as good a time as any. There are too many for one post, so I'll share a
few beetles on this one and some varied inverts another day.
First up, this was literally on the steps of the hotel when I arrived - and it
was pretty sizeable too. The shape seems right for Buprestidae, and checking
it seems it is perhaps Capnodis tenebricosa.
Here's a couple that look very familiar in terms of shape, and are clearly
closely related to our Oedemera nobilis. Some quick Googling brought up likely
names for them ....
Oedemera rufofemorata
Oedemera femorata
These two are even more putatively named ....
Tropinota squalida
Omophlus lepturoides
And these two remain unnamed, and are likely to stay that way - there's no
imperative to name them anyway, no records or lists awaiting them.
Presume Cerambycid
Presume Cantharid
This last one is actually from the car park of the hotel I stopped at just
outside of Athens before flying home.
Here's another batch of bits from Greece last week - this time a bunch of weevils which for the sake of presentation I've uploaded in size order from smallest to largest. No idea what any of them are ......
I've was working away in Greece last week, staying in a coastal hotel west of Patras in a small town called Kaminia. We have a factory c5km inland from there where I spent most of the week, and as usual I didn't get much of a chance to have a look around the area. All I did manage was to poke the camera at a few inverts that were all pretty easily found over a few half-hour searches of roadside scrub and weeds. Most photos are not great, limited chances whilst trying to cope with either bright sunshine or dusky conditions, but you get the gist. I'll post a few groups, starting with this black and red themed collection of hemiptera.
Possibly Graphosoma italicum
Possibly Ornate Shieldbug(Eurydema ornatum)
Firebug (Pyrrhocoris apterus)
Not sure, apart from it's not a Firebug
No idea on this one either so far
Think this one is Cercopis arcuata
Terrible photo - think this one is Spilostethus equestris
