Friday
Jun242011

Butterfly

A male marbled white butterfly, Melanargia galathea (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae). In females the pattern on the underside of the wings is brown and white, not black and white.  This is what the upper side of the male's wings look like (the females look the same):

Photos taken in the field below Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2011-06-21.

Thursday
Jun232011

White Campion

White campion (Silene latifolia).  The leaves look like this:

Photos taken in the field below Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2011-06-02.

http://www.floralimages.co.uk/page.php?taxon=silene_latifolia,1&ad=2
Wednesday
Jun222011

Ichneumon Wasp

An Ichneumon wasp (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) checking out a caterpillar, presumably as a potential host for an egg.  I know neither the species nor genus of the wasp but the caterpillar is Depressaria daucella (Lepidoptera: Oecophoridae) which has been very common on this stand of water dropwort (Oenanthe sp) this year.

See here for photos of a similar encounter between the same two species that I photographed two years ago.

Photo taken on the dam at the lower end of the large lake, Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2011-06-20.

Tuesday
Jun212011

Saint John's Wort

Saint John's wort (Hypericum perforatum).  If you look very carefully you will see it has light coloured dots on its leaves:

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2011-06-20.

Monday
Jun202011

Tachinid Fly

A small black female Tachinid fly laying an egg on a beetle larva.  The fly was identified as Dufouria chalybeata (Diptera: Tachinidae) by Erikas 'neprisikiski' and Chris Raper here

The larva is probably that of the thistle tortoise beetle, Cassida rubiginosa (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae).  It is using a fecal pellet as a shield.

Photos taken in the field below Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2011-05-25.