Insects and Spiders

What is the second grub?

Chafer I believe, it was massive! Not sure on the first though.

It's been a while since I had the chance to get out and take some insect photos but a splash of sunshine this morning got me out with my camera. So three flies - first up is a Noon Fly (Mesembrina meridiana)

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and an always photogenic Yellow Dung Fly (Scathophaga stercoraria)

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and finally, the last of the Soldier Flies to appear in the year - a Twin-spot Centurion (Sargus bipunctatus). Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to capture the petrol-like iridescence on this handsome insect. This one is a female that was busy having a morning wash and brush-up.

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A Nursery Web Spider (Pisaura mirabilis) out hunting in between the showers today.

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This little huntsman was guarding our front gate last week. Greetings from Australia.

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Nice - reminds me of this recent Infinite Monkey Cage podcast on Australian spiders.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001jkb3

That says something about dangerous spiders. Huntsman spiders are not. They're just big. This one was pretty small, not even hand sized.

The creepiest looking spider around here is probably the red headed Mouse spider.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missulena_occatoria

Don't think I posted this one a few weeks back. Apparently they breed in dung.

That is great!

What do you think is going on here? Huge swarms of tiny things forming clouds next to the tops of trees today

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I have noticed these above trees usually near water. Apparently around Spring and Autumn as they emerge en masse. This is lake Victoria...Africa.

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Unsurprisingly the insect thread has been a bit quite the last few weeks. Too cold to cycle so I'm heading out now to see what I can find in the currently sub-zero hedgerows and field margins of Oxfordshire. If I'm lucky a few picture-winged flies ...

Another fella, other side of the house.

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I'm always amazed at how minute insects can survive in damp, freezing conditions over the winter in the UK.

So first up, a Spotted-winged Drosophila (Drosophila suzuki). These are natives of SE Asia but are now found extensively across large parts of Western Europe and the Americas.

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The next one is one of the more brightly coloured leafhoppers Zyginella pulchra - this one is a male. They first arrived in the UK from continental Europe as recently as 2010.

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And lastly, one of the picture-winged flies I was trying to find. This one is Tephritis leontondontis.

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And important fruit pests - eat them when on the tree as opposed to rotting in your fruit bowl

Nice!

I have some nice photos of D. suzukii feeding on various fruit somewhere.

Trigonometopus frontalis found on a local marsh this weekend. It has a weird triangular, elongated head.

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A few from today (not currently in the UK!):

Monarch butterfly

Banded millipede

Snail, unfortunately the photo doesn't give an idea of scale, it was a biggie!

Nice have never seen a Monarch but enjoyed the recent bit on Planet Earth III showing them hibernating in Mexico

not currently in the UK!

lucky you!