Syrphin

Spent some time in the garden early this morning, too early for any real activity - just enjoying the relative peace, birdsong, morning warmth and plenty of coffee. I wasn't enjoying the largely empty moth trap. One of the Blackcaps showed itself a little better, and I saw a female in the garden which was nice.

I could hear a Skylark singing, and a very distant snatch of Lesser Whitethroat - I think the days of this being annual on the embankment are now over as it is probably too densely shrubbed over now. It sounded not far away, just beyond the end of the embankment where it turns to hedgerow along the field edges.

Early this afternoon, with left foot big toe much more flexible and much less painful than of late, I headed of for my first walk in over two weeks. I headed back to the disused railway line and I've got a few bits from the outing to share over future posts. Today though, I'll focus on the main activity in the garden yesterday with a couple of bits from today thrown in as they fit the topic - Syrphinae.

Having got completely fed up with the Eristalis pertinax disturbing anything, but having also noted a few smaller hoverflies in the garden, I decided it was time to swish the net and try to get them sorted. I'm not used to fondling hoverflies and clearly need more practice as getting hold of them was certainly not a refined and honed process - however all were released unharmed. Getting one-handed shots whilst hand-rangling diptera is also an art that I need to perfect. Turned out they're all female, I guess the males were too busy to be fanny about flying in sunshine.

First up, one that really should be exciting but again (having had one last year) a sense-check on the UK Hoverflies facebook group says sp. only. These clearly just need lumping ....

Female Pipiza sp.

Legs not yellow enough for P. luteitarsis, so probably P. noctiluca sl, but might not be ...

Female Eupeodes sp.

Another bugger, as markings not quite right for either E. luniger or E. corollae

 The rest were more straightforward ....

Female Melanostoma scalare

 Female Platycheirus albimanus

Grey spots on abdomen, extensively yellow legs

Female Rhingia campestris

Black edging to tergites

The following are all from the walk today ... same method, same clumsy handling ...

Female Leucozona lucorum

 

Female Helophilus pendulus

Female Syrphus ribesii

Note the hind femur is largely yellow except the base

Life In The Garden 28/08/2011

Been very lazy today; a good lie in, catching up on a couple of bits off of the Sky+ box (Torchwood and Dr Who), and going nowhere with the on-off crapness of the day's weather. Pottered in the garden a bit, and here's some random stuff:

Garden Spider

Rhingia campestris

Birch Catkin Bug (Kleidocerys resedae) - not a great shot but you get the gist.

This is new for me and the garden.

A currently unknown sawfly larva - one of a few I found feeding on the small garden birch. Any ideas?

Pill Woodlouse

Common Wasp

And a couple of moths not from today:

Firethorn Leaf Miner - found c20 of these resting on the garden fence yesterday afternoon, and I get the odd one in the traps so one of the neighbours must have something edible in their garden.

Pale Eggar

Life in the garden, 12/09/2009

Nichola was working today, leaving me with the kids who were happy to play out with their mates in the glorious hot sunshine. I also had a few bit to do, but as some of this included basic gardening chores I spent time pottering about the garden with one camera or other.

Birdwise the only interest was a singing Chiffchaff (making it seem even more summery), Bullfinch and Goldfinch amongst the commoner visitors. I kept looking to the wide open blue space above but saw precisely zero hirundines, swifts or buzzards of any variety.

Butterflies were back; I saw Comma, Painted Lady, Small Tortoiseshell, Red Admiral, Large White and Peacock all feeding on a large overhanging buddleia of some sort.









The same bush was also alive with bees of various sorts.


Busy


Buzzy

Quite a few hoverflies in the garden today aswell on various flowers.


Eupeodes corollae maybe


Rhingia campestris


Lobelia

Whilst out there I found a freshly dead shrew - pretty sure it is a Common Shrew. Couldn't see any obvious damage, though a cat still seems the mostly likely reason for it being on the other side of life.


c100mm nose to tail, c60mm body length alone


Just about showing red-tipped teeth, typical of the, er, red-tipped tooth shrews

The boys were excited to find some larvae, these turned out to be Rose Sawfly Arge ochropus



The garden is pretty much covered with spider webs at the moment, on every plant/shrub and in virtually every open space between sprigs. Mainly Garden Spiders, appropriately.





In between, the mightly LCFC scored another home win - it's now a year since we last lost a home game in the league. Warm clear sunny days are great, the inevitable clear cool nights are crap for moth trapping .......