In a previous post, entitled 'Damsels and Dragons', I showed some images of dragonflies and damselflies taken this September. Whilst trying to get to grips with macro, several other creatures became subjects of my efforts.
Butterflies
Not too many of these, but the bench in our back garden is a magnet for butterflies on sunny days. Small Tortoiseshells have been abundant this year. This one was taken on 1st September.
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| Small Tortoiseshell - our garden |
- and this one on 21st September.
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| Small Tortoiseshell - our garden |
I've only had three sightings of Painted Lady this year. The first was at Rutland Water on 30th August, and this featured in an earlier post to this blog. The second was in my garden on 7th September, and the third was the very next day - also in my garden!
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| Painted Lady - our garden |
We've been very lucky with good numbers of Comma butterflies this year. This one was taken at a distance on 21st September - I just couldn't get close to it!
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| Comma - our garden |
Moths
I have absolutely no idea what this very small moth was, in my garden on 21st September.
I found this caterpillar on 27th September on a post at the place where I buy all my wild bird seed. I'm not sure, but I think it's probably of a Ruby Tiger moth.
Hoverflies
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| moth (unidentified) - my garden |
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| Ruby Tiger ? (caterpillar) - Kings Bromley |
I used to think that hoverflies were just hoverflies, but I now know that there's an amazing assortment of them out there. The following are two from my garden on 21st September. I think that this first one may be a Common Drone Fly.
- and this second one may be a Syrphus species. Any comments and suggestions would be very welcome
Other Flies
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| Common Drone Fly ? - our garden |
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| Syrphus species ? - our garden |
On my 'local patch' there is a very distinctive species of fly that is abundant. I used to think that this was a type of horse fly, but I now understand that it isn't, but is a Noon Fly. This one was shot on 3rd September.
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| Noon Fly - my local patch |
- and on 27th September I managed to get somewhat closer to see more detail. That gold colouration is fabulous!
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| Noon Fly - my local patch |
I think that this next one, taken in my garden on 13th September is, Calliphora vicina - a blow fly.
I think that this next one, also from our garden, on 21st September, might be Lucilia caesar.
Other Bugs
last month I posted an image of a shield bug. At that time I knew nothing about them, but I'm now pretty sure that it was a 'fresh' (teneral) adult Birch Shieldbug. On a lone Sunflower in my front garden there are a couple of 5th instar (i.e., one stage off adulthood) Common Green Shieldbugs. The first one, taken on 26th September, is markedly smaller than the second, taken on 28th September (yes, the two do seem to spend time together!). I'm assuming that those are small red eyes?
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| Common Green Shieldbug (5th instar) - our garden |
Excellent macro collection....I particularly like the Noon Fly - never heard of it let alone seen one - I'm overall impressed Richard.
ReplyDeleteThank you Pete
DeleteBeautiful set of photos
ReplyDeleteThank you Julie.
DeleteWow, they all look so "alien" like, fantastic level of detail on the images
ReplyDeleteThank you Doug. Macro, even though I've got a long way to go, is already causing me to see the world in a new light. No intention of abandonning the birds - particularly the owls ! - however!!
DeleteVery impressed Richard,fantastic sharp detail,not seen the Birch shield Bug before.
ReplyDeletelove the Noon fly,look forward to seeing more Macro.
John.
Thank you John. Coming from 'the master' that means a lot to me.
DeleteSince publishing this post, the Common Green Shieldbugs both turned into adults, virtually overnight - which surprised me! We've also had another visit from the Birch Shieldbug, which now looks somewhat different. More on that in a future post.
I was not alerted to this post either! Some amazing photos here, well done. Have a good weekend Diane
ReplyDeleteThank you Diane. It's been raining all day here, and tomorrow looks as if it's going to be worse! I hope that you're faring better down in the 'deep south'. Regards - Richard
Delete