Mon 2011-12-26 
A parent bug, Elasmucha grisea (Hemiptera: Acanthosomatidae), with eggs on the underside of a birch leaf. This species got its common name because it protects its young before and after they have hatched. I followed this individual for several days but, sadly, it and the eggs disappeared before they hatched out. Maybe a bird found it.
Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-05-28.
Sun 2011-12-25 
An oak apple gall with ants. This gall contains male and female larvae of the sexual generation of the wasp Biorhiza pallida (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae).
Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-05-18.
Sat 2011-12-24 
A hawthorn shieldbug, Acanthosoma haemorrhoidale (Hemiptera: Acanthosomatidae). Similar to the birch shieldbug, Elasmostethus interstinctus, but with sharper shoulders and an all-green scutellum.
Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-09-14.
Fri 2011-12-23 
An unidentified slime mould that is just starting to form sporangia.
Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2011-12-21.
Tristram Brelstaff
A photo of the same specimen taken on the 2011-12-24 shows the white lumps to have disappeared leaving just a smooth translucent white plasmodium. Either it wasn't forming sporangia after all or else something happened to cause it to give up on that plan.
Tristram Brelstaff
This might be the plasmodial stage of Ceratiomyxa fruticulosa.
Thu 2011-12-22 
Common spangle galls on the underside of an oak leaf. Each of these galls is home to a single wasp of the asexual generation of Neuroterus quercusbaccarum (Hymenoptera: Cynipidae).
Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-08-29.
