Robber Fly

A black robber fly with fetching blue eyes: a male Dioctria atricapilla (Diptera: Asilidae).  Only the males have these blue eyes, in the females they are a brownish bronze.  Nowhere near as common as Dioctria rufipes, which seems to be one of the commonest predators in long grassland at the moment, but I did see a second D. atricapilla in Reading University grounds the following day.

Photo taken in the field below Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2011-05-09.

Diving Behaviour in Egyptian Geese

Zoe and I went for a walk round the lakes yesterday evening.  Near the northwest corner of the large lake we saw the pair of Egyptian geese (Alopochen aegyptiacus) taking off over the water, and there was a third goose - one of their by now fairly mature goslings following them up into the air, and then further back the three other goslings flapping about desperately only to fall back back to the lake.  The parents and the first gosling turned back and alighted on the water again. 

Then one of the three unsuccessful goslings did something I have never seen an Egyptian goose do before: it dived under the water and resurfaced  a few seconds later 5 to 10 metres away.  Then some of the other goslings made similar dives.  I cannot remember if either of the parents made one of these dives but at least three of the four goslings definitely did.  I was stunned.  As I said, in the 20 years since I have known the Egyptian geese on these lakes, I have never seen them (or any other geese) do anything like this.  I can only speculate that one of the goslings must have seen a coot or a great crested grebe dive and come up with food, and thought it would do the same, and it caught on.

Longhorn Moths

Two longhorn moths, probably Adela rufimitrella = Cauchas rufimitrella (Lepidoptera: Adelidae) on garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata).  These moths can also be found on lady's smock (Cardamine pratensis).

Photo taken in the field below Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2011-05-09.

Spotty-Eyed Hoverfly

A spotty-eyed hoverfly: a male Eristalinus sepulchralis (Diptera: Syrphidae).  Eristalinus aenus is similar but is a coastal species in the UK and no permanent inland populations have been found (Stubbs and Falk, British Hoverflies, 2nd edition, 2002).

The above image shows the grey lines on the thorax that are often present in E. sepulchralis.

See here for what was probably a female E. sepulchralis that I photographed last summer.

Photos taken on the dam at the lower end of the large lake, Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2011-05-10.

Malachite Beetle

A malachite beetle, Malachius bipustulatus (Coleoptera: Melyridae).  These have been quite common in the long grass over the past week, sometimes 2 or 3 competing for the top of a grass flower spike.

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2011-05-05.