Tue 2010-01-12 
The blackness of this small fly caught my eye one day last summer. It is probably Rhinophora lepida (Diptera: Rhinophoridae). Rhinophorid flies are similiar to Tachinid flies and distinguishing these two families can be rather tricky. Their larvae are parasites of invertebrates, mainly woodlice.
Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-07-16.
Mon 2010-01-11 
From early summer: the relatively smooth-abdomened Tachinid fly Subclytia rotundiventris (Diptera: Tachinidae). Up until a few weeks ago, I had assumed that all Tachinids had long spines on their abdomens, but now I know that some of them don't, I am working my way through my backlog of unidentified fly photos looking for others.
Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-06-04.
Sun 2010-01-10 
A robin (Erithacus rubecula). In snowy weather these can be very tolerant of humans. Zoe was attempting to get this one to eat out of her hand, but without success as it was continually being distracted by people feeding the ducks nearby.
Photo taken beside the middle lake, Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-01-09.
Sat 2010-01-09 
From the late summer of 2006: a tiny orange-brown leaf beetle. At that time I held out no hope of identifying such a small insect; there was nothing like it in the two Michael Chinery books that I owned, and I had not yet come across any web-sites that were really useful for identifying obscure beetles like this one. Even now I find the major beetle site, koleopterologie.de, a lot more difficult to browse than, say, the corresponding sites for moths and flies ukmoths.org.uk and diptera.info.
However, I recently realized that this beetle was similar in structure to the irridescent green dock beetles Gastrophysa viridis that I had also seen in the same area. That then led me to Mike Hackston's keys for UK Chrysomelidae which enabled me to final identify the beetle as Gonioctena olivacea (Coleoptera: Chrysolmelidae).
Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2006-08-27.
Fri 2010-01-08 
I came across this small, slim moth back in late spring, while I was photographing bugs in the long grass. It looked a bit different from the grass moths I had been seeing in that area. I only managed one photo before it flew off and didn't get round to trying to identify until six months later. When I did, I found it to be a diamond-back moth, Plutella xylostella (Lepidoptera: Ypononmeutidae).
Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-05-23.
