Scorpion Fly

A male scorpion fly, Panorpa sp (Mecoptera: Panorpidae) with prey.

Photos taken in the Wilderness, Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2014-05-05.

Hoverfly

A male Brachyopa scutellaris (Diptera: Syrphidae).  I came across 6 of these sunning themselves on leaves of a field maple overhanging a path.  I took a specimen and with my stereo microscope and the the key of Stubbs and Falk (British Hoverflies, 2002) was able to identify it to the species.

Photos taken in Chazey Wood, near Caversham, UK, on 2014-05-04.

Butterfly

A female orange-tip butterfly, Anthocharis cardamines (Lepidoptera: Pieridae).  A male was flying above and kept coming down and mating with the female, and the female kept raising its abdomen towards the male.  Unfortunately, the male had flown off by the time I got my camera out.  (It is only the males that have orange tips to their wings.)

Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2014-05-03.

Hoverfly

From last spring: a Parhelophilus sp (Diptera: Syrphidae).

Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2012-05-27.

Muscid Fly

A female Eudasyphora cyanella (Diptera: Muscidae).

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading, UK, on 2014-05-05.