Insects and Spiders

Oil beetle (?) in Glen Etive a week ago.

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• VID_20240520_103955068.mp4

Looks like it.

Whole lot of shiny rainbow boyes infesting the rosemary today.

Which probably means there was some surprise crunch in the sausage rolls I made last night.

A fly, Thircops diaphanus

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and the Common Malachite Beetle (Malachius bipustulatus)

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and a female cleg (Haematopota pluvialis)

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Bit annoying to use it this way, but useful to see how much of the mouthparts were left in me when I accidentally scratched off a tick

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Bulgarian bugs for your viewing pleasure:

European rhinoceros beetle
European rose chafer
Beautiful demoiselle (?)
Any ideas on the large brown dragonfly? 🤔

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Huge crew of these dudes absolutely destroying a small willow bush in my garden!

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I think they are Sawfly larvae

Probably
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nematus_oligospilus

This should be a new thread.

Insects with watches 👌

Yup, they’re larvae of the willow sawfly as Mespilus correctly identifies.

Beautiful mint moth on the ceanothus

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Nice photos! I think the dragonfly is an immature Scarlet Dragonfly aka a Broad Scarlet (Crocothemis erythraea). See for example https://www.odonata.org.uk/photos/Anisoptera/Crocothemis%20erythraea/slides/J16_0174%20Crocothemis%20erythraea%20male.htm

They should be present throughout Bulgaria but particularly near coastal wetlands https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&subview=map&taxon_id=85030

That looks like it!

Bad picture of a European Hornet. Very rarely see one and am always surprised how big they are!

Lovely red beetle today...

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Looks like the aptly named red cardinal beetle to me?

Cut back the bay tree and found these newly hatched ladybirds nestling on the underside of the leaf. Have been transferred to our nearby hop bush for them to do a little aphid control.

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Nice, but I think that they are probably first instar nymphs of the Common Green Shieldbug (Palomena prasina) - see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Palomena_prasina_first_instar_nymphs.jpg for example! Good photos btw, what set up did you use for those high mag shots?

Oops so they are - daft as I should know what the ladybird larvae look like as I’ve seen plenty!

Just phone camera down the scope, with a bike light for illumination. Will try get a little light box as will make it a bit easier.

Works really well with good detail on the eggs. I need to get a microscope!

I've fallen out with insects, just back from south west france, bitten to hell., then stood on a wasp.
However those purple winged carpenter bees are an impressive creature.

This youtube channel has some good insect related content. Not much information on what they're shooting but great macro clips

https://youtube.com/@macrolab3d