How to Disable Share This Pop-ups

Recently I have been coming across annoying Share This pop-up windows on several of the blogs that I read.  If you happen to leave your cursor over the link for a second or two, a window pops up and obscures part of what you are trying to read.  If you use Firefox there is something you can do about it:

1. Install the Adblock Plus add-on (if you haven't already done so)
2. Open the Adblock Plus Preferences window: Tools > AdBlock Plus Preferences...
3. Click Add Filter...
4. Enter http://*.sharethis.com/*
5. Click OK

There, a whole business model obliterated!

Note added 2010-10-29: I have come across some similar pop-ups that are sourced from different URLs, so I have also added the following to my AdBlock Plus filter list:

• http://*.addthis.com/*
• http://*.addtoany.com/*
  

Small Tachinid Fly

A small grey Tachinid fly on hogweed.  Probably a Siphona sp, possibly Siphona geniculata (Diptera: Tachinidae).  Siphona are so-named because of the thin proboscis, or siphon, which they suck nectar up with.  In the above image the fly has its (bent) siphon inserted in the hogweed flower.

This image shows the abdomen has an orange patch on each side.  Such orange patches are also shown in images of Siphona geniculata near the foot of this page at Alain Ramel's Les Insectes site.  This and the fact that the above images were taken near the end of September tend to suggest that this fly was S. geniculata.  Most of the other British species fly only in the spring and summer, and S.geniculata is by far the commonest British species anyway (see here).  However, Siphona species are reputedly very difficult to identify properly, so this is only a tentative identification.

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-09-30.

Lonchaeid Flies

A pair of female Lonchaeid flies (Diptera: Lonchaeidae), either Lonchaea sp or Setisquamalonchaea sp (ID by Iain MacGowan).  For more photos of these see here.

Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-08-22.

Mining Bee

From early this summer: a small mining bee, possibly Andrena angustior (Hymenoptera: Andrenidae).

Photos taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-06-15.

Hoverfly

Hornet-mimick hoverfly Volucella inanis (Diptera: Syrphidae).  Compare with the real hornet here.  Volucella zonaria is similar to V. inanis but is noticably larger and the first light band on the abdomen is reddish-brown rather than yellow.

Photo taken in Whiteknights Park, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-09-04.

The above fly is a female (its eyes do not meet on the top of the head), the following one is a male (its eyes do meet):

Photo taken in The Wilderness, Reading University grounds, Reading, UK, on 2010-07-20.