Another Sciomyzid Fly

From the height of summer, another Sciomyzid, this time one I can identify: Coremacera marginata (Diptera: Sciomyzidae).  "With its long antennae and its heavily dappled wings laid flat over its body at rest, this insect is not likely to be mistaken for any other fly although, at first glance, it does not really look like a fly." (Michael Chinery, Complete British Insects, Collins, 2005)

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

Sciomyzid Fly

From back in the spring-time, what I think is a Sciomyzid fly (Diptera: Sciomyzidae).  This tentative identification is based on comparison with images such as this and this at diptera.info, however, the similiarities are not close enough for me to feel confident enough to identify the genus.

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-05-24.

Red Grouse

From early August: a red grouse.  Nowadays these are regarded as a subspecies of the the willow grouse (Lagopus lagopus).  This photo was taken only few days before the start of the shooting season, and Zoe was trying to drive these birds in the direction of the forest, where they would be safe from the guns, but she wasn't having much success.

Photo taken on Guisborough Moor, North Yorkshire, on 2009-08-06.

Mercury, Saturn and Venus

A photo taken out of our bedroom window at just before 7am this morning.  The bright object to the upper right is Venus (at magnitude -3.8) .  Mercury (mag -1.0) is about 60% of the way along the line from Venus to the satellite dish.  And, if you look carefully, you can just make out a faint Saturn (mag +1.1) to the lower left from Venus.  Saturn is unusually faint this year because the rings are almost edge-on.

Photo taken in Reading, UK, on 2009-10-12.

Green Chalcid Wasps

Another type of chalcid wasp, these I think are probably Torymids, possibly Torymus sp. (Hymenoptera: Torymidae), but I am not sure of that.  The females use their long ovipositors to lay their eggs on the larvae at the centre of oak galls (see here for a photo).

The males seemed a bit smaller than the females, even allowing for their lack of ovipositor:

[Note added 2010-02-04: I had assumed that, because this wasp was close to the Torymid wasp in the first two photos, that it must be the same species.  However, in a comment below, Hannes Baur suggests that it is more likely a female Eulophid wasp of genus Sympiesis, possibly S. sericeicornis.]

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2009-10-08.