Insects and Spiders

Awesome. Are these just holiday snaps or are you out there specifically to look at insects?

Ta. A bit of both. We've been coming here for a few years now - mainly walking and general wildlife watching, usually birds. But I've made a bit of an effort this time to look for insects and it's been really rewarding. To my shame in all this time I've never cycled the island, though I'm familiar with all the routes from driving through the mountains to get to the start of walks ...

Anyway, today's crazy creature has no English name, is another Mediterranean beetle specialty and is called Dicladispa testacea

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Nice shieldbug!

Nice. Funnily enough I work with a Majorcan entomologist who specialised in Balearic beetles for their Msc, so I was wondering if you might have crossed paths. During lockdown he was sending us photos of the exact same beetle!

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My first Cetonia Aurata of the year, though looked like it was on its way out. Looking forward to the couple of days they all suddenly appear in my garden!

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Ta! It's in my mother-in-law's garden. She's a really keen ecologist, and is very fond of her shieldbugs.

Wow, small world. And a great photo too - that's some impressive macro / photo stacking work there.

Indeed.

Yeah he’s our resident whizz for lots of actual ento stuff and pretty handy with helicon focus. We’ve got plenty of microscopes so macro is a little easier haha. What do you use for your macro photos in the field as really impressed by the stuff you’ve been posting!

Thanks. Some of the photos, like the one of the spiny beetle, are taken with an Olympus Tough TG-6. It has a a 'microscope' mode and built in image stacking. I usually use this when I've manged to get an insect in a sweep net and can get really close to it. I've been really impressed with the camera so far. The other 'in-the-field' photos are using a Nikon digital SLR with a Tamron 90 mm macro lens. In both cases I just take loads of photos and hopefully at least one will be in focus and well framed!

The mayflies are out in force, and the warblers are enjoying them.

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And a few midges

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8ft above a bust public footpath is a good place to hangout right?

It was probably 2ft tall for scale

Some great Mallorcan shieldbugs in the last couple of days. First up the Red Shieldbug Carpocoris mediterraneus

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Next up the tiny Small Grass Shieldbug Neottiglossa pusilla

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and finally, the Striped Shieldbug Graphosoma lineatum

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Love the stripy one!

Seen a couple of emperor moth's today and a tiger beetle, both great to see

OK, a couple of young un's for you this eve. The first is a Jumping Spider (Salticidae) no idea what species. Crazy eyes like on an old 1950's cars headlamp cluster.

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and the second, a really early instar of the European Mantis, Mantis religiosa (it was about the size of an ant).

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I've not seen an Emperor Moth in years, am very jealous!

Cool beetle up on the moor this morning, very purple, not that it shows in this crappy photo

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Also made friends with a moth last night

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Any idea what kind of caterpillar this is?

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Red Admiral, I am moderately sure.

I think its a Drinker moth catapillar, Euthrix potatoria.

Take a look at https://www.ukmoths.org.uk/species/euthrix-potatoria/larva/ and https://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/drinker#gallery-6 . The pale white tufts are a good pointer.