For #NIW2020 #NationalInsectWeek a Banded Demoiselle (Calopteryx splendens) that graced our garden pond this week, managing to avoid the depredations of a newly hatched brood of 8 mallard ducklings, unlike many flies....
#WestSuffolk #30DaysWild @Britnatureguide #EntoAtHome
Amazing moment on the Long Mynd today when the kids and I watched a male Emperor dragonfly catch a Small Tortoiseshell and apparently remove its wings whilst in flight. Turns out it removed the abdomen to eat, and dropped the doomed live butterfly
#30dayswild #NIW2020
Our final post for #NationalInsectWeek is this fierce looking, but completely inoffensive Wasp beetle (Clytus arietis). An example of Batesian mimicry, where a harmless insect mimics the appearance of a harmful one to try to avoid being predated...
#NIW2020 #WildOxford #Mimicry
For #NationalInsectWeek, a rather splendid longhorn beetle (Stenocorus meridianus) with no common name, that I spotted prowling through the grassland in the Lye Valley, Oxford a few days ago.
#NIW2020 #beetles #coleoptera #TwitterNatureCommunity
We always look forward to seeing these colourful Scarlet Tiger moths (Callimorpha dominula) flying through the Valley, but were surprised to see this one had lost an antenna! Could someone tell us what moths use their antennae for? 🤔🤔
#NIW2020 #teammoth #NationalInsectWeek
Xanthogramma stackelbergi male from woodland ride in Gloucestershire at the weekend
#NIW2020 #Diptera #entomology
#Syrphidae
Doing my little bit for #littlethingsthatruntheworld during National Insect Week 2020
Pulled off my thigh this afternoon 😫
#NIW2020 #EntoAtHome #likeinsects #littlethingsthatruntheworld #insects #entomology
Cerotelion striatum a #Keroplatidae fungus gnat with expanded blade-like antennae swept from a promising looking pile of rotten tree mush
#Diptera #NIW2020 #Entomology
Male & female of Hylaeus communis (Common Yellow-face Bee) from Kildavin, Co. Carlow #insects #NIW2020
Nice to see two leaf-mining #Agromyzidae flies on the same Solidago virgaurea (goldenrod) plant at the weekend. Nemorimyza posticata (blotch mine) and Ophiomyia maura (linear). Thanks to @AgromyzidaeRS for the ID on the latter
#Diptera #Entomology #NIW2020
Helophilus hybridus, a new hoverfly for me, observed a few days past in a nearby woodland.
Lots of the much more abundant Helophilus pendulus about too! Snazzy critters. 🔎 #hoverflies #NIW2020
This is only the second Scarlet Tiger moth (Callimorpha dominula) I've seen so far this year, and it wasn't really the view I was hoping for! Through a (rather dirty) window... #NIW2020 #EntoAtHome #NationalInsectWeek #WindowMoths #MothsMatter #teammoth
