Insects and Spiders

We get loads in QLD, a client's mum (in northern NSW) lost one of her dogs to one this time last year. She picked the wrong winter to not give them their tick tablets (to save money), one of the warmest on record.

My mate got bitten a few months back, she was fucked for a week.

This one goin in

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Some shit phone photos of interesting French bugs. The mantis was pretty small.

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The middle one is stunning

I think it’s graphosoma semipunctatum, which is a type of true bug.

Black caterpillar looking thing is a glow worm, but not glowing.

Papillon

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It's a match!

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Is that a Comma?

Yep.

Any ideas? 🤔

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Big green boi

Think it might actually be a locust nymph but not 100% on that

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I think it could be Platydracus stercorarius, one of the Rove beetles - see https://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/platydracus-stercorarius . The Rove beetles are notoriously hard to identify but this one is quite distinctive so I'm fairly confident of the ID. I've never seen one but would like too!

This is from a couple of nights ago. For the last couple of weeks one of the fuchsias next to our back door has been looking increasingly sickly and I couldn't work out why until the other night when I saw this massive caterpillar (Elephant Hawk Moth, Deilephila elpenor) marching off from the pot over the back step looking for somewhere to pupate. Elephant Hawk Moth caterpillars love fuchsias.

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The iNaturalist AI image recognition engine thinks that it's an Egyptian Bird Grasshopper (Anacridium aegyptium) - I think it's probably right and it's an immature (nymph), especially if you saw it in the Med? Compare for example, https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/30466292 with yours.

Superb!

Thank you. 👌

Sawflies laid earlier in the year have certainly been busy!

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Looks pretty spot on, thank you!

No problem!

No problem too - I enjoy the challenge and good photos like yours and the one from Ordinata make it easier!

I never remembered to post in here, but we’ve had two stag beetles (Lesser variety) in our garden in the past few weeks.

Reported through the London Wildlife Trust portal because they’re apparently quite rare!

Guy in the photo was actually just inside our patio door, next to the bed and had some dust on him. I moved him outside to the gravel, and then into some foliage.

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A study in green from down by the Thames this afternoon. A male Speckled Bush Cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima)

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I'm thinking this might be a Lesser Stag Beetle? The jaws look wider than a female Greater.

Yeh I think it’s a Lesser - the second one we saw in the garden was the same.

It's mad that these things don't eat in their adult form. Even with those massive jaws they have a tiny little fibre tip to soak up some moisture but that's it.

Just another common darter

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