Hoverflies

From late last month: what I first thought was a bee, but then I noticed the dipteran-like antennae.  A male hoverfly, probably Merodon equestris (Diptera: Syrphidae), a species which seems to show quite a lot of variation in the colour of its thorax, from yellow, through brown, to yellow and black, and all black.  A couple of weeks later I came across the following one:

Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-05-31 and 2010-06-15, respectively.

Longhorn Beetle

A rather striking longhorn beetle, Agapanthia villosoviridescens (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae), on hogweed (Heracleum sphondylium).

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-06-09.

Picture-winged Fly

A female picture-winged fly Urophora cardui (Diptera: Tephritidae). I first saw one of these early last summer, but at the time I had just packed my camera away and the fly got away before I could photograph it.  Over the following months I would often look for it in the same place, but without success, and I eventually gave up.  Then, a few days ago, I stumbled across a second one, hiding between the spines of a thistle about 20 metres from where I had see the first.  The larvae of U. cardui develop within large galls in the stems of thistles, and I have seen several of these galls in the same area over the past couple of years.

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-06-07.

Black Soldier Fly

A fat black soldier fly, probably a female Odontomyia tigrina (Diptera: Stratiomyidae).  When I first saw this fly, I assumed that it was just another Calliphorid, but then I noticed that the antennae were unusually long, so I carefully took some photos that allowed me to identify it when I got back home.

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-06-06.

PhpMyAdmin not working in Ubuntu 10.04 Server

Yesterday I installed PhpMyAdmin on my Ubuntu 10.04 server but when I came to test it out I couldn't get it to work: I just got a 404 Not Found page instead of the PhpMyadmin login page.  I searched the web and followed up several possible solutions but they all eventually just fizzled out.  Then the answer suddenly came to me while I was watching this video: I had omitted to select the configure for Apache option during installation.  I remembered just assuming that Apache would be the default and just hit Return without thinking, but watching the video made me realize that you had to explicitly mark Apache with an asterisk before hitting return.  Simple, and I am rather annoyed that I fell for this.