Oak Common spangle gall

Plant galls are fascinating structures, what I find most interesting is their huge diversity of shapes, colours and textures. It is often possible to see several different types of gall on the same tree all a result of a different species of cynipid wasp. While the ultimate cause of these growths is down to wasps, the tissues which make up the gall are plant. The mechanism by which wasps induce gall formation is not fully understood, but it is thought that secretions from the egg or larvae are the initial trigger.
This particular gall is the common spangle gall, caused by the cynipid wasp, Neuroterus quercusbaccarum. The gall is induced by an adult wasp, it provides a nutrient source for the larvae developing within.




The animation shown below was constructed from synthetic stereo images produced by the image stacking software I use, Zerene stacker. It gives an idea of the 3D structure of the gall.
It may take a few seconds to fully load.

Dolichopodidae

The Dolichopodidae are a large family of flies with over 7000 species described wordwide. They are commonly known as Longlegged flies, unsurprisingly due to their very long legs!

This image is a stack of nearly 200 separate shots, taken with a Nikon Nikon N plan 10/0.30 objective.




The image seen below is a crop of the image above, it clearly shows the hexagonal ommatidia. Insect eyes function quite differently from our own and they produce an image which lacks detail. The main function of the insect eye is not to produce an image, but to detect movement. Ommatidia are well adapted to this function, they only detect light that passes through a very narrow angle. This means that any movement of an object in front of the eyes is easily detected through a change in the pattern of light detection in the many ommatidia across the eye surface.
What looks a little like a pupil in each ommatidium is just a reflection of the microscope objective.

Nettle sting

Stinging nettles, Urtica dioica are very interesting but often very annoying plants, they seem to grow best along side paths just where there they are most troublesome, the slightest brush against the plant leaves you with a prickly rash. At least I am glad we do not have the nettle Urtica ferox which grows in New Zealand its stings have been known to kill dogs, horses and even a human!

The photo shows a section of nettle stem with lots of non stinging hairs and two stinging hairs called trichomes, the stinger on the left frame I don't think is fully developed, it does not have the enlarged base which the trichome on the right has. The plant was only about 5cm tall so it was very young, the stem is just over 1mm thick. The base of the sting is a reservoir containing the cocktail of chemicals which result in the irritation and rash from of a nettle sting, acetylcholine, serotonin, histamine, leukotrienes, moroidin and 5-hydroxytryptamine.

The hollow, silica trichomes have tiny protective tip, it is just about visible in the photo. This tip breaks of easily when touched transforming the hair into a sharp needle that can easily break through skin to inject its toxins.

Oak bush-cricket 'ear'

Insects do not have ears on their heads as mammals do, but the detection of vibrations and sound reception is very important to insects. By using a variety of organs many insects are able to detect a wide range of sound frequencies, far greater than our human ears can, the most elaborate of these organs is the tympanum.

A tympanum comprises of a section of flexible membrane, air sacs which evolved as modifications of the trachea and sensory cells. Several, quite distantly related insect group use this type of sensory organ suggesting that tympanal hearing has evolved independently on several different occasions. In bush crickets, tympanal organs are found on the foretibia, whereas in grasshoppers they are located on the hind legs, in some moth species tympana are found at the base of the wings.


For the species shown in the photo, Meconema thalassinum hearing is particularly important during courtship where males stridulate by tapping their hind tarsi on vegetation (this is fairly unusual for bush crickets, most rub their forewings together), this produces a very quiet drumming sound which attracts females.

Blood sucking cat flea

Cat fleas are not the prettiest of insect, but they are a nice red colour when full of blood!

I caught this flea from my cat Alfie, I then allowed it to suck my blood for 5 minutes before killing it and taking 120 photos which were then stacked to produce the image as seen below. The flea had just about doubled in size by the time it had finished its blood meal.

This image is a stack of 100 frames, taken using a Nikon M plan 10/0.25 objective on bellows.

More hamuli

This is a crop of the image in the previous post showing a little more detail of the hamuli.

More hamuli

This is the forewing of a common wasp, Vespula vulgaris. The hamuli can be seen at the bottom right of the image; see the previous post for a description of the function of these tiny hooks.

Hamuli

Hamuli are tiny hooks found on the hindwing of hymenoptera (wasps, bees, ants and sawflies), these hooks attach onto a ridge on the forewing, firmly connecting the two wings. Joining the hind and forewing together improves aerodynamic efficiency during flight.
This wing is from a mining bee, Andrena.

Syrphus vitripennis... probably

There are two Syrphus species which I find are very common in parks and gardens of North London, S. vitripennis and S. ribesii. These two species are very similar; the females are easily separated by the colour of the hind femur with ribesii females having yellow hind femora whereas in vitripennis females they are black.
Males of the species vitripennis and ribesii are best separated by looking at the tiny hairs on the wings, the microtrichia.

There is another species, Syrphus rectus which has males which are indistinguishable from vitripennis males. Little is known about this species with only a few records of its existence in Britain.

Cheilosia pagana

Cheilosia is the largest UK hoverfly genus with around 37 different species. Most of this genus are rather nondescript, small black flies and it can be difficult to identify species.

Female C.Pagana are quite distinctive, they have very large, orange third antennal segment. Males, as seen in the photo also have an orange third antennal segment although it is smaller than in females. Characters used for identification include the bare arista, lack of hairs on the eyes, glossy black face, black hairs on the scutellum and hairs of uniform length on the lateral margin of the fourth abdominal segment.

Melangyna umbellatarum

The spots on the abdomen of Melangyna umbellatarum are very pale compared to most other hoverflies in the tribe Syrphini, this character is shared with a few other Melangyna species.

I found this hoverfly in the back garden along with dozens of Episyrphus balteatus, there are a lot of those around at the moment.

Rhododendron leafhopper

This exotic looking species was accidentally introduced from the USA in the 1930's; its vivid colouration makes it easy to spot on rhododendrons from the middle of Summer and into Autumn.

The Rhododendron leafhopper acts as a vector for the fungus Pycnostysanus azaleae which causes the disease rhododendron bud blast. The adult leafhoppers lay their eggs in the buds of the plant allowing fungal spores entry.

Image shot with a reversed 50mm f/2.8 EL-Nikkor on bellows.

Graphocephala fennahi

Marmalade hoverfly

This is the Mammalade hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus, one of the most common UK hoverflies. It is easily recognised by the distinctive pattern on the abdomen.

Episyrphus balteatus

Bee antenna

This is a section of antenna from a Nomada bee, Nomada flava. The doughnut shaped indentations in the lower half are sensilla placodea also known as pore plates, they have an olfactory function, they detect airborne chemicals giving the bee a sense of smell.

The surface of each sensillum placodeum is perforated with many tiny pores, chemicals pass through these pores and are transported by carrier proteins to sensory neurones of which there are many for each sensillum placodeum.

The image is a stack of 83 shots, taken with a Nikon N plan 10/0.30 objective on bellows. The actual length of the bit of antenna shown is approximately 0.7mm.

Cat flea

This flea was kindly donated by my cat, Alfie!

This is the highest magnification I have attempted, the flea was about nearly 2mm in length, so the section of flea in this photo is less than 1mm. I like how the surface is semi-transparent making some of the internal structures visible.

This is a stack of 105 shots.

Bee wing

This is a section of the forewing of a mining bee, Andrena.

The image was taken with a reversed 50mm f/2.8 EL-Nikkor on bellows.

Bee mouthparts

These are the mouthparts of the cuckoo bee Nomada marshamella.

Image stacked from 98 photos which were taken with a Nikon N plan 10/0.30 objective on bellows.

Here is a crop showing more of the detail:

Bee tongue

This is the tongue of the Hairy footed flower bee Anthophora plumipes. The tongue of this bee is amazingly long (12-15mm) allowing it to reach the nectar of deep flowers. As well as collecting pollen from flowers, the hairs on the tongue help with the senses of taste amd smell, molecules pass through pores in the hairs where they are detected by sensory cells.

This image is a stack of 80 photos which were taken with my Nikon D300 using a Nikon N plan 10/0.30 objective on bellows.

Anthophora plumipes

Scarlet lily beetle

The scarlet lily beetle is a major pest and cause lots of damage to lilies, they eat the leaves, buds, stem and flowers. These beetles were once confined to the South-East corner of the UK but in recent years they have been spreading Northwards. When alarmed the scarlet lily beetle makes a high pitched sqeaking noise to deter predators.

Image shot with a reversed 50mm f/2.8 EL-Nikkor on bellows.

Lilioceris liliia

Cuckoo bee

This is the cuckoo bee Nomada goodeniana, they are described as cuckoo bees because the females lay there eggs in the nests of ground nesting bees, Andrena. The hatched larvae eat the pollen provisioned by the Andrena adults and emerge in the Spring. The practice of stealing food from another species is called cleptoparasitism, there are many wasp and bee species which feed their young in this way.

Nomada goodeniana

Nomada goodeniana

Black garden ant

This is the ant Lasius niger which is very common, it is found all over Europe as well as in Asia. The vicious looking mandibles are used for chomping on small insects and spiders, this species also milks aphids for honeydew as well eating fruit.

The head is about 1mm across and the total length of the ant is 3.5mm.
This image is a stack of 120 photos which were taken with a Nikon M plan 10/0.25 objective on bellows. This is my first attempt at photographing an insect at this magnification and I found minimizing vibrations to be very difficult. I think I am going to try using a more solid base for my next try.

Lasius niger

Sorus

This photo is of a sorus on the bottom of a fern leaf. A sorus is a cluster of sporongia, these structures produce spores which are dispersed and grow into new plants. Stomata are also visible on the leaf surface.

This is a stack of 82 images, taken with my Nikon D300 using a Nikon M Plan 10/0.25 objective on bellows. The sorus is about 1mm across.

Daffodil

'Green' shield bug

This is a green shield bug that I found sunbathing on some ivy, after coming out of hibernation. Around November the bodies change colour from a bright green to this bronzy brown, this provides good camouflage amongst the leaf litter during late Autumn and Winter.

This image was taken with a reversed 50mm f/2.8 EL-Nikkor on bellows.

Palomena prasina

Crocus stigma and style

Juniper shield bug

Cyphostethus tristriatus

Crocus anther

This photo is a stack of 44 images, taken with a reversed nikon 50mm f/1.8 lens on bellows.

Oedemera nobilis

This is one of my favourite shots from last year, its a Thick-Legged Flower Beetle, so called because males have thickened hind femora.

Oedemera nobilis

Fungus infected soldier fly

This is a soldier fly I found late August last year, it has been infected and killed by an entomopathogenic fungus, possibly Zoophthora radicans. This is visible on the second photo as a white powdery substance on the abdomen and wings.

What is particularly interesting about these type of fungi is the effects that they can have on insects. Fungal infections can cause flies to climb up to the top of a plant, spread their wings and become stuck on the surface of a leaf or stem. These effects all increase the chance that the fungal spores will spread, infecting more insects.


Chorisops tibialis

Midge

This is a non-biting midge, a member of the chironomidae family. The males of this species have feathery, 'plumose' antennae.

Cat flea

This is the nasty cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis. For some reason they seem to love my blood, I always get more bites than anyone one else in the family. The body of this flea is just over 2mm in length.
This is a stack of seven shots, taken through a stereomicroscope.



Ctenocephalides felis

Winter moth

This is a female winter moth which I found in December. Females of this species are virtually wingless and can not fly at all, the males look completely different and have a wingspan of around 30mm.


Operophtera brumata