Scorpion Fly

A male scorpion fly, Panorpa sp. (order Mecoptera).  The females do not have the large red 'sting', just have a red pointed tip at the end of their abdomen (see here).  There are 3 UK species of Panorpa but these are difficult to distinguish without the aid of a microscope. 

In the past, I have found scorpion flies very difficult to photograph: they seem to like hiding in among twigs and leaves, and when you go anywhere near them with a camera they immediately fly off.  Today the weather was a bit cool and maybe that is why this fly was a bit slower than usual.

Photos taken in Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-05-17.

Update on Sat 2012-03-10 by Tristram Brelstaff

The structure of the 'sting' indicates that was Panorpa communis.  See this post by Tim Worfolk on how to distinguish the males of UK species of Panorpa.

Orange Fly

Photographed among the irises in the marsh on the northern edge of the large lake.  I'm not sure of the identification as there are quite a few families of dipteran flies that contain species that look rather similar to this.

I don't think it is a dung fly (family Scathophagidae), such as Scathophaga stercoraria, because it's thorax and legs are not covered with yellow or greenish-yellow hairs. 

I also don't think it is a member of family Heleomyzidae, such as Suillia variegata, because they have distinct black spines on the leading edges of their wings. 

It might be a member of family Sciomyzidae, such as Tetanocera elata.  The latter "frequents waterside vegetation where, like other members of the family, the larvae feed on small snails" (M. Chinery, Insects of Britain & North Europe, 3rd Edition, Collins, 1993, pages 203-204).  The above fly was in some irises at the edge of a lake, and I did notice several small snails on those irises.

Photo taken in Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-05-17.

Ubuntu 9.04 Home Directories Readable by All

Yesterday I was surprised to discover that, in my latest Ubuntu 9.04 system, each user's home directory was readable to all other users (ie: permissions "drwxr-xr-x"). I seem to remember that this was not so in Ubuntu 8.10 and earlier, so I can only assume that this is a result of the latest upgrade. Whether it was intentional or not, it is not what I want, so I fixed it by starting up a terminal console and entering:

sudo chmod o-rwx /home/*

Each user home directory now has permissions "drwxr-x---" and is only readable by that user.

[Edited 2012-11-15 to correct permissions.]

Egyptian Goose

Egyptian goose (Alopochen aegyptiacus).  This is the father of the 8 surviving Egyptian goslings on the large lake. 

Photo taken in Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-05-17.

Hoverfly

A hoverfly, probably a female Anasimyia lineata based mainly on the photo here. The males of this species seem to have much less grey on them, as shown here.

Photo taken in Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-05-17.