Sun 2012-01-22 
A week or so ago, my daughter was tidying up her bedroom and came across a diary from 2009. I thought this page was worth photographing before we threw it out. I never knew she had such an exciting life.
Sun 2012-01-22 
A few days back this small beetle flew in through our kitchen window. It is probably a male spider beetle, a Ptinus sp (Coleoptera: Anobiidae).
Spider beetles are so-called because, with their long antennae looking like extra legs, they were thought to resemble small spiders. There are 8 UK species of Ptinus listed at the NBN Gateway: dubius, fur, lichenum, palliatus, pusillus, sexpunctatus, pubpillosus and tectus. The white patches on the wing cases on my specimen look like those for sexpunctatus but the background colour doesn't look right so I won't claim that as an identification. It is probably a male because in Ptinus the females have a distinctly rounder and less elongated body shape than the males (see here).
Photos taken in Reading, UK, on 2012-01-20.
Sat 2012-01-21 
A blue disco fungus growing on a fallen branch of a tree.
Photo taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2012-01-19.
Fri 2012-01-20 
A female hoverfly of species Volucella pellucens (Diptera: Syrphidae). These lay their eggs inside the nests of the common wasp Vespula vulgaris.
Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2010-08-01.
Thu 2012-01-19 
A male hoverfly, probably Myolepta dubia (Diptera:Syrphidae). Last year I dismissed this as just another black Cheilosia and assumed it would unidentifiable to the species on the basis of a photgraph, but last week I had another look and noticed the orange side to the abdomen. There are no UK Cheilosia with so much orange on their abdomen.
Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-7-25.
