2 Bugs

The creature on the Borage the other day was in all probability a Common Green Capsid. This one is resting at the top of a furry Verbascum.

Aphid?

Testing IV

Public enemy no 1....

Garden Insects 1st July '07

Will post on these & hopefully identify them asap. Today was overcast & windy in the garden with the occasional ray of sunshine. It has been torrential lately at times. Far too wet to do anything worthwhile at the allotment!

Borage & a Bug 1st July '07

Caught this after a rain shower this afternoon whilst Lisa was doing her guitar exam.

Earlier before we went out I noticed this bug of some kind on the Borage. I wonder if it is a shield bug of some sort or a Longhorn beetle. The opercula don't seem to fully cover the wings, which may help with identification.

White Rabbits (1st July 2007)

As it is so wet and I haven't been out much lately I thought I'd post this print which is on our back room wall. I got it from a second hand bookshop for a couple of quid years ago and it gives me pleasure every time I look at it. We haven't seen Burnets lately but there have been one or two Cinnabar Moths at Fairhaven Dunes and Bank Lane (this one on clover). We did have a beach walk in the wind aon Friday, but I mainly photographed the dogs!

Bank Lane Wander 26 June 2007

'Popped in' to Bank Lane for a quick look on the way to the allotment this afternoon and didn't make it to the allotment. Looking back toward Lytham from the parking space you can see Lytham Windmill from a rather different angle to usual.

This is the view straight out from the parking space. I have seen Hen Harriers and Short Eared Owls here in the past.

Another view of the Bank Lane habitat. Basically scrubby salt marsh.

I walked down this path to acess the grassy banks which border the farmland and the marshland. There is an ancient orchard on the left past the remaining fragment of brick wall.

Flies & a Wasp?

This hoverfly appears to be very common. I was looking at a Hoverfly book on Ebay today and I think I saw this one on the example page. Will go and have another look. Update: from looking on Google for hoverfly pics I think this is Eristalis lineata. Seems clear that it is named after the series of lines accross the abdomen. The eyes should be 'without a conspicuous pattern of dark spots'. I will look for things on Google and then try to confirm from other sources.

Will look this one up as well in the fulness of time. Update: It now seems this updating might become a continuous process. In my innocence I thought a clear picture of the backmarkings would be enough...oh dear, oh dear... in my copy of Hoverflies, Gilbert & Falk, Cambridge University Press, 1986, this looks to be Helophilus pendulus. However, other members of the species Helophilus lack the black facial stripe and are yellow on only the basal third of the hind tibiea rather than two thirds as in pendulus. So it looks like I need to get a mug shot as well!

This looks like some sort of wasp. Very striking and it was hassling the bees from their blossoms. Update: this seems to be a Mason wasp. More info. to follow. Update 2: Is definately of the Ancistrocerus tribe and the most widespread of these is trifasciatus but the pics I've seen so far of this don't look quite right. I'll have a look at some others. (could also be parietinus).

This looks to me like a hoverfly masquerading as some sort of bee. That looks like a 'proper' bee making a sharp exit to the bottom left of the picture. Update: Am pretty confident this is a drone fly Eristalsis tenax, larvae of which are the so-called 'rat tailed maggots'. Update 2: However this specimen could be Eristalsis pertinax which does'nt have eye stripes or a feathery arista (spike growing from the antennae - ref for myself).