Tuesday
Sep112012

Beetle

Leaf beetle Donacia semicuprea (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae).

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2012-06-17.

Monday
Sep102012

Tephritid Fly

A female Tephritis formosa (Diptera: Tephritidae) on an ivy flower (Hedera helix).  Now we are into September, Tephritid flies are much scarcer than they were just a month ago.

Photo taken in the field below Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2012-09-03.

Sunday
Sep092012

Hoverflies

A male Eristalis pertinax (Diptera: Syrphidae) hovering above a feeding female of the same species.

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2012-09-06.

Saturday
Sep082012

Moth

A garden carpet moth, Xanthorhoe fluctuata (Lepidoptera: Geometridae).  This seems to be a quite variable species even having a a melanistic variant.  The above specimen came through our living room window one evening and I trapped it in a plastic tub and kept it there until the following morning when I photographed it and then released it.

Photo taken in Reading, UK, on 2012-09-06.

Friday
Sep072012

Ormyrid Wasp

A metallic blue wasp: a female Ormyrus sp, probably Ormyrus nitidulus = Ormyrus tubulosus (Hymenoptera: Ormyridae). 

Although I see these quite frequently in Whiteknights Park, this is the first one I have seen in and around Chazey Wood.

Photo taken in the field below Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2012-08-26.