Entries by Tristram Brelstaff (3025)

Thursday
Aug132020

Figuring it out your own way

Joan Feynman died recently. She was the younger sister of Richard Feynman. In "Surely you're joking Mr Feynman" he mentions some advice he got from her:

During the conference I was staying with my sister in Syracuse. I brought the paper home and said to her, "I can't understand these things that Lee and Yang are saying. It's all so complicated." "No," she' said, "what you mean is not that you can't understand it, but that you didn't invent it. You didn't figure it out your own way, from hearing the clue. What you should do is imagine you're a student again, and take this paper upstairs, read every line of it, and check the equations. Then you'll understand it very easily." I took her advice, and checked through the whole thing, and found it to be very obvious and simple.

Whenever I come across something that I find difficult to understand I remember this advice and try to figure it out in my own way. Sometimes I make embarrassing mistakes but I learn better this way.

Wednesday
Aug122020

Ichneumonid Wasp with Eggs

A female Ichneumonid wasp (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae).

The ovipositor has 6 white eggs attached:

Having eggs stuck to the ovipositor like this is a characteristic of some Tryphoninae.  Most Tryphoninae are parasites of sawfly larvae.

Specimen taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK on 2020-08-07.

Sunday
Aug092020

Tachinid Fly

A female Frontina laeta (Diptera: Tachinidae). Identified using the key of Belshaw, 1993.

The abdomen is orange with white dusting and a narrow black line line down the middle:

Specimen take at Thames Valley Park, Reading, UK on 2020-08-01.

Monday
Jun152020

Moth

A scarlet tiger moth, Callimorpha dominula (Arctiidae).

Specimen taken near Kings Meadow Tescos, Reading, UK on 2020-06-15 and released after photographing.

Sunday
May102020

Blue Tit

A blue tit (Paridae: Cyanistes caeruleus) emerging from a hole in the top of a security camera pole in a car park.

Photo taken at Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK on 2020-05-04.