Conkers

Conkers is a visitors center and play area right over the north-west of Leicestershire (so far over that the postal address is for Derbyshire, but it is on our side of the border). We had a great day out, and there is plenty of good habitat around such that it's easy to combine a family day out with some opportunistic camera pointing. Today I was very lucky indeed, as the abundant ragwort, water mint, field scabious and various umbelifers hosted masses of hoverflies, and in amongst the plethora of Eristalis spp. and Helophilus spp., I found some dipteran goodies .....

Phasia hemiptera - smart!

Conops flavipes - another smart one.

Syritta pipiens - wacky rear femur

Eristalis intricarius - not as common as the others today

Surprisingly very few damsels and dragons about, and also very few grasshoppers and crickets, though Josh found this one easily enough ....

female Long-winged Cone-head

Amongst the plants, I found a load of this growing in part of a very damp and shaded wooded area ...

Water Figwort

Down the lane

I decided to pull up down the lane after work and have a mooch along the hedgerow. Nothing particular in mind, I just felt compelled to do it. As it happens, I found a few interesting bits. It was very dull light so I had to rely on flash to get a few record shots, but here-goes anyway.

First up - I found a pair of bush-crickets which I am sure are my first ever Long-winged Cone-head (or at least first I've bothered to try and ID). Here's a shot of the female - let me know if I've screwed up the ID!

I also found a couple of larvae:

Dot Moth

Drinker

Sticking with moths, I found numerous leaf-mines on hawthorn. Not really sure on species as yet, but I found examples of 3 different types of mines.

In fact on this leaf you can see all 3 types: a blister mine on the left, a blotch mine on the right and a gallery mine at the top leading to a small blister.

Blister mine with frass clearly visible

This gallery mine on bramble is, I'm fairly sure, Stigmella aurella

This fly was happily foraging on various plants that I can't identify:

Mesembrina meridiana

Otherwise, here's a bit of colour:

Hawthorn berries

Prickly Sow-thistle ??

Creeping Thistle flower

Creeping Thistle seeds

Breakthrough