Different bird, but I couldn't resist the setting!
Friday 9 November 2007
Sunday 4 November 2007
Stabbing on Maulden Heath
There were three of these 6cm long wasps, which I presume to be some type of Ichneumon, working over a pile of conifer logs on Maulden Heath on Sunday afternoon (4th Nov 07). Once a larva was detected within the timber they would raise their abdomen, unsheath the ovipositor (occuring in this picture) and push it into the victim. Two were contending over one location so there clearly must have been something beneath the surface there, obvious to them with their antennae, but not to me with my eyes.
Picture by Keith Balmer
Monday 1 October 2007
Elephant Hawk Moth
Friday 14 September 2007
Rainham Water Vole
Sunday 26 August 2007
Saturday 25 August 2007
One leg short of a grasshopper...
Old Warden Ladies
Monday 13 August 2007
Wood Mouse
Sunday 12 August 2007
Tree-lichen Beauty - A new macro moth for Bedfordshire 11th August 2007
Saturday 11 August 2007
National Moth Day/Night 11th August 2007
Friday 10 August 2007
Vapourer female, mating with male and eggs, Lower Stondon 10th August 2007
Melissa and I have been breeding through a Vapourer larva that we collected from a house in Clophill a few weeks back. It emerged yesterday as a female so we decided to try assembling males to it as they are attracted in daytime to the pheromone that she gives off.
The first photo is of the female and you will see that she is full of eggs and has only residual wings. Her sole duty is to climb onto the top of her pupal case, mate and lay her eggs. The female was put in an assembling cage in the garden at 11am and by 11.10am a male had arrived. He was disturbed as I opened the cage for him but returned a few minutes later, found the female and commenced mating. by 11.25am another two males were fluttering round the outside of the cage.
By 13.30 she had started to lay eggs with the male in close attendance.
You can see some of the eggs here.
All photos by Andy Banthorpe
The first photo is of the female and you will see that she is full of eggs and has only residual wings. Her sole duty is to climb onto the top of her pupal case, mate and lay her eggs. The female was put in an assembling cage in the garden at 11am and by 11.10am a male had arrived. He was disturbed as I opened the cage for him but returned a few minutes later, found the female and commenced mating. by 11.25am another two males were fluttering round the outside of the cage.
By 13.30 she had started to lay eggs with the male in close attendance.
You can see some of the eggs here.
All photos by Andy Banthorpe
Thursday 9 August 2007
Just going to post some retrospective stuff, all from Chicksands Wood, going back to 29th July, which will be dated under the original dates, which are:
29th July 2007: White Admiral, Green-veined White
3rd August 2007: Purple Hairstreak, Brimstone, Essex Skipper
5th August 2007: White-letter Hairstreak
29th July 2007: White Admiral, Green-veined White
3rd August 2007: Purple Hairstreak, Brimstone, Essex Skipper
5th August 2007: White-letter Hairstreak
Monday 6 August 2007
Garden moths in Lower Stondon 5th August 2007
The following were most definitely surprise additions to our garden moth list. both were trapped overnight.
The first is a female Oak Eggar which was in the trap by 10.30pm. Photo by Melissa Banthorpe
She laid 7 eggs which are c2mm across and are in the next photo. Photo by Andy Banthorpe
The second addition was a Webb's Wainscot. This is the 7th Bedfordshire record and the 6th for the vice-county (VC30). Photo by Andy Banthorpe
The first is a female Oak Eggar which was in the trap by 10.30pm. Photo by Melissa Banthorpe
She laid 7 eggs which are c2mm across and are in the next photo. Photo by Andy Banthorpe
The second addition was a Webb's Wainscot. This is the 7th Bedfordshire record and the 6th for the vice-county (VC30). Photo by Andy Banthorpe
Saturday 4 August 2007
MVCP Muntjac 28th July 2007
Friday 3 August 2007
This sequence of Purple Hairstreak at Chicksands Wood, 3/8/07, are all more or less blurred but possibly interesting as they unusually show the purple upperside and also interesting behaviour in frames 3-6 where the insect is fanning its wings extremely quickly - too quick to freeze. In the last image it has just started flying off, but it makes quite a nice abstract.
Sunday 29 July 2007
Saturday 28 July 2007
Cooper's Hill Hymenoptera
Here are a selection of pictures of Hymenoptera seen on the reserve in a couple of recent afternoons. (I think the IDs are correct - please let me know if you think any are incorrect).
An Ammophila sabulosa preparing to drag her catch into the nest. Once the nest is fully provisioned she will lay an egg and seal the hole.
A Philanthus triangulum, known as the Bee Wolf, carrying a honey bee worker to her nest. The burrow leads to several cells which are provisioned with bees.
Cerceris rybyensis. Her nest will be provisioned with beetles, mostly weevils, or other solitary wasps.
A ruby-tailed wasp, Hedychrum niemelai. (This species has RDB status). Ruby-tailed wasps, also known as cuckoo wasps are cleptoparisites or parasitoids on other solitary wasps, in this case various species of Cerceris, such as C.rybyensis above. They will enter their burrows and lay an egg in each available cell.
Dasypoda hirtipes the hairy-legged mining bee. There is a large aggregation of these delightful bees in the SW corner of the reserve. Watch them "row" backwards pushing excavated material onto the spoil heap before running back down the mine for more!
An Ammophila sabulosa preparing to drag her catch into the nest. Once the nest is fully provisioned she will lay an egg and seal the hole.
A Philanthus triangulum, known as the Bee Wolf, carrying a honey bee worker to her nest. The burrow leads to several cells which are provisioned with bees.
Cerceris rybyensis. Her nest will be provisioned with beetles, mostly weevils, or other solitary wasps.
A ruby-tailed wasp, Hedychrum niemelai. (This species has RDB status). Ruby-tailed wasps, also known as cuckoo wasps are cleptoparisites or parasitoids on other solitary wasps, in this case various species of Cerceris, such as C.rybyensis above. They will enter their burrows and lay an egg in each available cell.
Dasypoda hirtipes the hairy-legged mining bee. There is a large aggregation of these delightful bees in the SW corner of the reserve. Watch them "row" backwards pushing excavated material onto the spoil heap before running back down the mine for more!
All pictures by Keith Balmer.
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