This week I
have managed a couple of fairly bird free short walks around the reserve but
the insects have more than made up for any autumnal disappointments and only
the continued aerial acrobatics of our tenacious dragon hunting Hobbies has
focused the eyes up rather than down.
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| Juvenile Hobby |
With the Sea
Aster blooming on the foreshore Jerry Hoare and myself have concentrated our
efforts on trying to find the rare little mining bee Colletes halophilus which
is largely tied to this plant species and after several false alarms with the
newly emerging Ivy Bees – Colletes hedera – which are also attracted to the
flowers – we have now found a few of this feisty little stripy bee.
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| Colletes halophilus |
The nearby
Ivy here (and in the woodland) is now well populated by its larger more ginger
hued cousins.
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| Colletes hedera |
Back on the
tideline the Aster and Bristly Ox Tongue is also attracting countless bumbles
including both Brown Banded (Bombus humilis) and Common Carder Bees (Bombus pascorum)
as well many fluffy little Shrill Carders (Bombus sylvarum) with their high
pitched mosquito humming!
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| Brown Banded Carder Bee (Bombus humilis) - no black hairs anywhere on the abdomen |
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| Common Carder Bees (Bombus pascorum) scattered black hairs on the abdomen |
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| Shrill Carder Bee (Bombus sylvarum) |
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| Shrill Carder Bee (Bombus sylvarum) |
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| Shrill Carder Bee (Bombus sylvarum) |
Wasps and Brown
Argus butterflies and many Whites were in attendance and a good look at some of
the green bottles revealed quite a few Neomyia just like last year and using
Phil Collins handy little id sheets I was able to count bristles and get at least
one of them to N. viridiscens.
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| Neomyia cornicea |
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| Neomyia viridiscens - the 2nd of Phil's handy pointer pics |
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| Neomyia viridiscens- honestly I zoomed in and looked at bristles! |
There were
plenty of Episyrphus balteatus hoverflies and a couple of the slightly alien
looking Eristlinus aeneus with their spotty half hairy eyes.
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| Eristlinus aeneus |
The woodland
loop still has plenty of flowering Bristly Ox Tongue and the hoverflies are
loving it especially in the early morning sunshine. This morning I picked up
four different Eristalis species along with Sphaerophoria scripta, Helophilus
pendulus, Syrphus ribesii and a nice female Eupeodes luniger with her lunate
spots and dark Y on her frons.
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| Eupeodes luniger- lunate spots not meeting the edge of the abdomen |
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| Eupeodes luniger- black inverted Y on the frons just above antennae |
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| Eupeodes luniger- |
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| Sphaerophoria scripta |
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| helophilus pendulus |
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| Syrphus ribesii |
Back at the
Ivy the Ivy Bees were really getting energetic and were getting stroppy with
any Honey Bees on their flowers and even the comparatively huge forms of
Volucella zonaria and pellucens and Myathropa florea.
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| Volucella pellucens |
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| Volucella pellucens |
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| Myathropa flora - I love this fly - not the most Batman of marks on this one! |
Rhingia
campestris (no rostrata) were delving deeply into the Large Bindweed
flowers and an Ectemnius Wasp with a big head (possibly E.cephalotus) was watching for prey.
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| Rhingia
campestris - 'I'm going in Captain' |
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Rhingia
campestris - staggering after leaving the pub
|
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| Ectemnius sp |
Tomorrow is
my last day before I escape back to Lesvos and I will endeavour to get out for
a final stroll if I can.
Oh and I
think that that is enough scientific sounding entomology for one evening...
