Polypore Fungus

A polypore fungus, probably Datronia mollis, the common mazegill.

The following shows a more extensive area of pores in more detail:

And the following shows how small the brackets are relative to the oak leaves on the ground:

Photos taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-04-05

Hoverfly

A female hoverfly: Volucella inanis (Diptera: Syrphidae).  With its broad yellow face this species mimics the hornet Vespa crabro.

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-08-03.

CodeIgniter Error Reporting

 

CodeIgniter is a popular PHP framework for building websites. I have long suspected that the way it reports errors was unnecessarily complicated. Well, last week I finally got round to really trying to understand what was going.  The above diagram summarizes what I learnt.  Click through and select 'download' to see a larger version.

This information applies to my current setup which is CodeIgniter 2.1.0, PHP 5.3.2 and Apache 2.2.14 all running under Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.  There might be some differences for other setups.

Capsid Bug

A capsid bug, probably Capsis ater (Hemiptera: Miridae). In the summer I often find these in long the grass climbing up and down the stalks.  The swelling at the outer end of the 2nd antennal segment is a characteristic of this species. This specimen shows more orange than the one in my earlier photo here.

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-06-27.

Carpet Beetle

A varied carpet beetle, Anthrenus verbasci (Coleoptera: Dermestidae).  Their larvae can be a serious domestic pest.

Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-06-12.