Red ant

I found this fairly large (6mm) Myrmica rubra ant last week on a Silver Birch. These are an agressive species of ant and have a nasty sting.


Myrmica rubra

Mating Lauxaniidae

Weevil

This is a seed weevil, possibly Apion stolidum on an ox-eye daisy. The length of the nose is pretty impressive for such a small weevil, the total length is about 2mm of which 25% is the nose!

Mosquito

A nasty little biting mosquito. I had several bites after being out for about an hour, I think the cold, damp weather brought them out.


Culiseta annulata

Orange ladybird

This orange ladybird didn't seem to mind sharing its Sycamore tree with dozens of harlequins. This is the sixth species of ladybird (Coccinellidae) that I have photographed this year.


Halyzia sedecimguttata

Harlequin ladybird pupa

I had not seen any harlequin ladybirds in my local park until yesterday when I spotted this pupa on the trunk of a tree. I was a bit suprised to see it quite so far from any green vegetation, athough there were plenty of aphids around.


Harmonia axyridis

Neuroctena anilis

This is a Neuroctena anilis , it belongs to the family Dryomyzidae of which there are six UK species.
Its fairly large, about 12mm and stayed nice and still allowing me to get close and take quite a few photos.

In the woods

Garden spider

European garden spider - Araneus diadema

Look up

Hoverflies

This Summer I have been trying to photograph and identify as many hoverflies as I can find in my local park in North London. The diversity is amazing, all together I have seen about 20 different hoverfly species, yet this is a tiny proportion of the 276 species which have been found in Britain.
Here are some of my favourites:


Xanthogramma pedissequum



Syrphus ribesii



Eristalis horticola



Cheilosia pagana



Episyrphus balteatus

Urban fox

Strumming by the sea

Lepidoptera

A selection of moths and butterflies I have seen this year.



Mother of pearl moth - Pleuroptya ruralis



Small Tortoiseshell - Aglais urticae



Small skipper - Thymelicus sylvestris



Painted Lady Butterfly - Cynthia cardui



Speckled Wood butterfly - Pararge aegeria

Miscellaneous

Some random shots I've taken recently

Insects

I have been doing a lot of insect photography this Summer making use of my remote Nikon sb-200 macro flashes. It is amzing the detail and colour you see when you are able to get really close.



Green Shieldbug - Pulomena prasina



Muscidae - Helina sp.




Sarcophagid fly caught by garden spider - Araneus diadematus

Cornwall Summer 09

Spent two weeks in Cornwall this Summer. The weather was terrible the first week with rain every day, the second week was far better and I was able to take a few photos.

New macro lens

To celebrate my last AS exam I bought myself a Tamron 90mm f/2.8 macro lens. I am really liking it, its a lot easier to use than a reversed 50mm lens which I used previously to get mcaro shots.

I have only had the lens for a few days, here are some of the photos I have taken with it:

Middlesex v Leicestershire

I went to see Middlesex play last week at Southgate's Walker ground. I saw the last day which was not particularly exciting with the game finishing in a draw, but it was good to see Strauss and the young Australian Hughes.



This is 19 year old James Taylor who scored his first county championship century, finnishing with 122 not out.



Phillip Hughes who will be playing for Australia in the Ashes this summer.



Andrew Strauss bowled the final over of the day before the game was ended at 5:30 with no result possible.

Snow

Lots of snow this week in London. Alfie the cat was very curious about all this strange white powdery stuff.