Dung Fly

Another photo from the height of last summer: the dung fly Cordilura albipes (Diptera: Scathophagidae).  This specimen was in a great hurry to get away from me and this was the only photo I managed to get of it.  I have not seen this species before or since. [Note added 2016-10-07: it is actually quite common - in the years 2014-1016 I collected 15 specimens]

Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-07-27.

Pink and Orange Fungus

A pink and orange coloured fungus.  I have no idea of the species.  It was on a decaying log.

Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-01-28.

Update on Thu 2010-04-01 by Tristram Brelstaff

Might be Phlebia radiata.

Firefox IsThreadDesktopComposited Error

This evening I got the the following Windows XP error message on starting Firefox immediately after upgrading it from version 3.0 to 3.6. 

The procedure entry point IsThreadDesktopComposited could not be located in the dynamic link library USER32.dll

I had just finished upgrading several other software packages (Notepad++ and OpenOffice amongst them) and I assumed that one of these had done something to upset Firefox.

A search on the web revealed several blog posts which suggested that this problem could be fixed by renaming or deleting the file dwmapi.dll from the directory C:\Windows\system32.  Dwmapi.dll is only required on Windows Vista (and presumably later), and should not be present on Windows XP.

On looking, I found that there was no dwmapi.dll in the C:\Windows\system32 directory, but there was one in the C:\Windows\system directory so I renamed that to dwmapi.dll.disabled.  However, whenever I tried to rename this file through Windows Explorer, it would revert to its original name after a few seconds (presumably Windows trying to prevent malicious or accidental damage to system files?).  So I had to go into the command line to rename it permanently: click Start, click Run..., enter cmd, click OK, then enter

cd C:\windows\system

rename dwmapi.dll dwmapi.dll.disabled

This fixed the problem and Firefox now starts up correctly.

I have not identified the software package that installed the unnecessary dwmapi.dll.

Muscid Fly

An orange-bodied Muscid fly, either Phaonia rufiventris, P. subventa or P. bitincta (all Diptera: Muscidae).  See here for more of this group of similar species.

[Note added 2011-11-04: Not Phaonia rufiventris which has more orange on the side of the thorax.]

Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-09-20.

Puffball Fungus

A puffball fungus, possibly a Lycoperdon sp, growing on the ground under a pile of sticks.

Photo taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-02-11.