Insects and Spiders

Anyone know what these could be?

They are about 5mm diameter, one side more opaque than the other and through the less opaque side I can see a little caterpillar type thing.

They ‘jump’ as the caterpillar or whatever that’s inside moves.

Initially I thought they were seed pods/husks being moved by the wind but went up to take a closer look and they are alive!

Totally failing to find anything on Google.

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Better photo of the thing inside.

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This brave lady and her babies hitched a ride on my wing mirror at 70mph from Fife back to Edinburgh today!

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Not a clue what it is! I've used my go to biological AI image recognition tool on iNaturalist and that doesn't offer up anything even slightly relevant. Where are these things - is it in a coastal setting, on land etc?

Aliens

In my back garden which is suburban Glasgow!

Wondered if they could be something to do with greenfly as they were on a paving slab underneath a sycamore tree that’s badly infested.

They really pop and jump!

Not sure if this will work.

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Speckled bush cricket, at last

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That's just weird. I know a couple of professional entomologists (hoping that this isn't sufficient for me to get me overheard the 'golf club bar')- I'll ask them about it this week.

Haha! That’s awesome though.

Mrs M_V is away out to see if she can find them and see what they are up to now. There was a pair of them in fairly close proximity (on the same paving slab). We looked around and couldn’t see any more of them.

Aliens

We all know how this movie ends :(

I have a lot of moth friendly plants in the garden so decided to go out and see if we had any moths coming by. There's loads but I can't see what they are. Going to dig out the head torch tomorrow. Did get a rubbish photo of one getting caught by a false widow.

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Hmm. Could this either be a larvae that has consumed the inside of a seed pod?

...one that has actually spun a 'bottle top' cocoon?

Mostly dragonflies this weekend.

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A couple more...

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Apparently it's Heterarthrus fiora - a type of Sawfly (they are related to wasps) that as a larvae lives in mines within the leaves of Sycamore trees. Once the larvae are mature they seal themselves in a circular puparium within the leaf that eventually dries and falls to the ground. The adult Sawfly eventually emerging from the puparium.

It was ID'ed by a professional entomologist who in this case is clearly far better at identification than an AI image recognition tool - impressive given that there are over 24,000 insects in the UK to choose from!

See - https://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/heterarthrus-aceris
and
https://www.galerie-insecte.org/galerie/ref-121816.htm

Superb.

Amazing!

Slihgtly disappointed it's not a new species that me n Mrs m_v get to name but fascinating!

I'll need to look out for evidence of them in the leaves.

It was a great find - as far as I can tell the larvae / puparium are very rarely seen.

Puparium is a great word

“Just heading down to the puparium for an hour, gonna do a little metamorphosing”

Lovely jersey tiger moth down at the allotment

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Just spotted this guy in the garden

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Also this guy keeps swinging by, never seen one before

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Nice hat

Conti 5000 and passenger

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