Another unusual insect: Tenthredo baetica (ssp. dominiquei), with only 118 observations world wide, of which 29 for this particular subspecies. It's a wasp – sort of: a sawfly.
The rear limbs are rather large, and I wonder why. For carrying prey?
Wikipedia points out an interesting reversal: in the Tenthredo genus, the larvae eat plants while the adults prey on other insects. Whereas many typical wasps do the opposite: the adults sip nectar but hunt insects to feed their young. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tenthredo One wonders then what is this adult doing on a flower, engaging in motion patterns characteristic of foraging on nectar and pollen.
An unusual fly: red-belted hoverfly, Brachypalpoides lentus – a sawfly mimic. The larva is yet to be described. About 20 observations in the whole UK; 172 globally.
From Hyde Park, London (June 2023). Standing right next to Peter Pan's statue.
I was taking (poor) photos of a fairly large hoverfly (not pictured) when I noticed a loud and very low-pitched buzzing in the tree under which I was standing. Sure enough, a queen European hornet alighted on the trunk. Beautiful insect, and as she'd settled at about head-height it was easy to get a good look at her and take lots of photos. Really nice to see more hornets in semi-rural areas like this! #Hornet#Entomology
"Stranger than science fiction." That's how an ecologist describes a strange fungus that hijacks cicadas’ bodies and behavior, turning them into "zombies."
CNN reports on the the fungus Massospora cicadina and how it's impacting some of the cicadas emerging this year: https://flip.it/cxfw5K
Ooof. Never argue with an ant colony. Cleaning out a storage box in the garden. One corner has an ant colony in it, partially destroyed by my clearing. Also present: Two 3cm-ish false widow spiders, shiny black. Can't escape the box now the contents have been removed, sides are too smooth.
Left the job and went to have lunch, expecting to need to re-home the spiders. Figured they had plenty of ants to eat. On return, no sign of the smaller spider. The larger has had a disagreement with the ants. It has not ended at all well for the spider.
Here's my finished, coloured Procretevania exquisita drawing. This was a hatchet wasp from the Yixian Formation of China; hatchet wasps still exist today and specialise in parasitising cockroach ootheca. #FossilFriday#paleoart#wasp#insect#entomology
Also known as "lake flies," "blind mosquitoes," and "fuzzy bills," midge flies are common around bodies of water. I spotted this fuzzy feller on a gas pump by the lake.
They aren't actually mosquitoes and only some species bite, but leaving standing water can create huge swarms that deplete the biomass of lakes and ponds.
One of the strangest coincidences in entomology is that the Common Cockchafer's Swedish vernacular name ollonborre translates as 'bell-end driller'. Do not name your daughter Melolontha without considering the matter seriously first.