Insects and Spiders

Run away!

Tube web?

yaya

Saw some great insects today enjoying the first warm sunshine for a while. This one is the Tiger Hoverfly (Helophilus pendulus)

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Thanks.

Wow 👌

First of the leaf cutter bees has emerged. Another has started filling one of the free holes but I've noticed a parasitic wasp has been lurking around.

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Some recent phone pics. Last one looks to be a (harlequin) ladybird larva.

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A couple from the garden yesterday. A large red damselfly and a longhorn beetle. The beetle seemed to be ahving some sort of fit every couple of minutes, and got picked up by a robin later on.

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Anyone know the name of this butterfly which visits my garden every year?

Mint Moth

https://butterfly-conservation.org/moths/mint-moth

Just rescued this little fella who landed on my wife before she got a chance to squash him

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I seem to get lots of these in the flat.

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I’ve had to learn to like those^ pholcid spiders (cellar spiders). It’s fascinating watching them tear their young and to think of them as the top predator in the house.

Saw my first Stag Beetle (Lucanus cervus) of the year this evening - fabulous creatures. "Stag beetles are rare and threatened throughout northern Europe and the populations in the Thames Valley are some of the largest in the world. London is a particular stronghold". More here https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/stag-beetles.html

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Love these phone pics - particularly the Oil Beetle!

We've got a proper colony in our house, they eat the massive scary spiders. Watched some mating last week, they are fascinating. They gently stroke each others legs for half hour before deciding whether to go for it or try and kill each other.

Caught one of the leaf cutter bees emerging

https://twitter.com/katrinnas/status/1536614079061712897?t=o7m8XoOCluSh4P_395JkXg&s=19

Thanks a Mint Moth on some Thyme

Those two shield bugs mating are a delicacy where I come from in Zimbabwe. Known as hururwa.

They only breed in a certain small area near Bikita, and the chief determines when they can be harvested, in an effort to protect them from over-exploitation.

Their urine is super acidic and can cause bad burns to hands, so they are normally popped straight into a bowl of water to dilute the pee, then they are lightly roasted.

Taste a bit like roast pistachios.

Found a large white and yellow Flower Crab Spider (Misumena vatia) on a white and yellow Ox-eye Daisy

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We have a patch in the garden that always has loads of these mites, which I think are the nice predatory Phytoseiulus persimilis, but I may be wrong.

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From eggs to legs. Bunch of little ladybirds-to-be.

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Also a fine looking red admiral outside my kid’s nursery

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Nice!