Tuesday 25 May 2010

Bioblitz images

I was recording hoverflies, butterflies, bees, leaf-miners, plants and lichens. I think my final contribution was over 100 species, with several of them being new to me.

This is the wonderful hoverfly Chrysotoxum arcuatum:

These very rarely sit still, so it's 'shoot and hope' with them.

Green Hairstreak butterflies were very numerous around the edge of the moor area:


I noticed that this male Orange Tip was nectaring on Bush Vetch, so I chanced a few shots, hoping to get the long tongue in action:

A few plants of Bog Bean were dotted around walkable bits of the boggy area:
During the previous night, a number of moth traps were laid across the park. These are a few of the species new to me:

Knot Grass - Acronicta rumicis:

Least Black Arches - Nola confusalis:
Pine Beauty - Panolis flamea:
Scalloped Hazel - Odontopera bidentata:

V-Pug - Chloroclystis v-ata:

2 comments:

Gill said...

What a wonderful creature that hoverfly is - how big is it?

Nice shot of the orange tip. They were everywhere here yesterday along verges and hedge bottoms - doubt there'll be many today as we're back to the cool and grey.

Stuart said...

'What a wonderful creature that hoverfly is - how big is it?'

It's about the size of a small common wasp, and from any distance indistinguishable from one, since they fly in a similar way, always facing one direction. Lots of female hoverflies can be seen hovering around leaves and stems at the moment, as they look for aphids to lay their eggs near. Chrysotoxum sp. target aphids which are associated with ants nests. That's a double-dependency at least, so perhaps that's one reason why they're not too common.