Quite a few bugs starting to be around if you look for them on a sunny day. Looking forward to many more this year.
This is a Cardinal Beetle but a sub varia with the red head rather than the usual black, Pyrochroa serraticornis - smart fella, got to love the head gear !
And of course a damsel - an Azure damselfly - Coenagrion puella resting on a leaf, as you can see from the shadow it was a sunny day and these guys were not sitting around long for pictures !
The Large Red Damselfly - Pyrrhosoma nymphula were also in good number and took some time out to pose for me, nice !
This is a Soldier beetle - Cantharis rusticsa, pretty fierce if your a small insect but for us - lots of bravado and posing but thats it
Now this was a bit unusual for me - walking in the woods and got to a point where there was a break in the canopy, in the light area there was a number of insects swarming / circling quickly often breaking off and then more coming in, as they were above me and moving rapidly in all directions it was a point - manual focus and shoot to try and get anything, turns out they are craneflies, not seen this behaviour before so was interesting.
Now this is a fly a Snipe Fly probably the common one Rhagio scolopacea there were quite a few about but again reluctant to land and stay put - managed to get a couple of frames and this is the best of the bunch.
Finally a Spider, what captured my eye was not only the spider but the Fly - talk about taking a risk. The spider in question is a Hunting Spider - Pisaura mirabilis, they dont use a web but as the name suggestds they hunt their prey, at this time of the year I guess the 'hunt' for a mate was uppermost in its mind and the fly was lucky !
This is what the prey normally sees last thing before the lights go out !
In all a nice few hrs wandering looking for bugs, a few odd looks from people and a few snippets passed on to educate the passer by, one gent with his lady and children now knows that Damselflies fold their wings along their body and Dragonflies hold them out at 90 degrees to their body, something he did not know then and does now and can amaze his young children with to help them develop an interest in wildlife, very satisfactory to do that.
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