Muscid Fly

A female Morellia sp (Diptera: Muscidae).

Photos taken above Hutton Village, near Guisborough, North Yorkshire, on 2013-09-12.

Tephritid Fly

A female Tephritis bardanae (Diptera: Tephritidae).  October is rather late in the year for this species.  All the burdock flower heads in which it might have laid its eggs have long-since turned brown and dried out.  Maybe the warm autumn we've been having has caused this individual to hatch out early.

Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2013-10-06.

Acorn

An acorn of a turkey oak, Quercus cerris, with its characteristic hairy cup.

The leaves of this tree seemed somewhat elongated:

Photo taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2013-10-05.

Another Slime Mould

Mature sporangia of the slime mould Badhamia panicae on the bark of a log. The distribution of the sporangia over the surface of the log suggests that the slime mould plasmodium first moved along the cracks in the bark before spreading out slightly and then forming the sporangia.

The following close-up show that the sporangia are stalkless, unlike Badhamia utricularis. Also, where the calcified sporangial wall has split, you can see the spore-mass contains badhamioid (calcified) particles of capillitium.

On the surface of the bark, you can also make out the thin red film that is the remains of the plasmodium.  This thin red film is characteristic of B. panicea.

Photos taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2013-10-05.

Slime Mould

A white slime mould with black stalks that I haven't yet managed to identify.  It was growing on a fallen log.

Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2013-09-28.