May 2014

Man oh man

Barnack Hills and Holes is a fabulous little reserve north of Peterborough. It is noted for its orchids, but has a wide variety of interesting invertebrates too. A brief visit this morning yielded a new family for me - the Orchid Beetle Dascillus cervinus - as well as completing the same family! Commoner, but more striking, was this cardinal beetle Pyrochroa serraticornis. Good job they aren't this big in real life....

The Man Orchids are a real speciality of Barnack and I quickly...

Bog Hoverfly - Eristalis cryptarum

MattPrince's picture

Submitted by MattPrince on

One of the most local and hard to connect with hoverflies is Eristalis cryptarum, the bog hoverfly.  Never present in huge numbers at any of its remaining sites, it is also quite flighty and can easily put up.   ...
At least it is fairly easy to recognise - in the field the impression is more dumpy and gingery than your average eristalis, and (unless its on marsh marigold) the all yellow legs stand out.
  So when the Devon Fly Group

Longhorn

Skev's picture

Submitted by Skev on

And I am not referring to cattle.

Whilst there are many things I am yet to see, longhorn beetles generally are good to see and of these I was hoping to see Anaglyptus mysticus in particular this year. I was therefore well chuffed to sweep one off of hawthorn locally on Friday late afternoon. Whilst very compliant for a photo, it would happily sit still on anything but hawthorn .......

Like all such things, having seen one for the first time on Friday...

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