Cast your fate to the wind...

Usually these updates are fairly easy to write. I sit in front of the computer for a short while, just meditating on what might follow: then I unlock a little door inside my brain, and the words tumble out onto the page already formed, and another session is underway.

Today was my 'Brexit' day though; no matter how I tried, I could not get it done. The only words that did emerge, did so with such force that they tumbled right over that Brexit cliff-edge, like demented lemmings. Having now confined my false start to the rubbish skip of eternity, I am going to start with a picture instead...

Pentatoma rufipes - A Red-legged Shieldbug

I think this is a mid instar of the bug that we always called a forest bug, until it joined the ranks of those who have seen their names updated. I see these quite a lot, but this is the first mid instar for 2019

Now! What has eight legs, two 'hands', striped legs and a spotty body?

This does...

Yes, this tiny spider has gone for the full Monty regards camouflage. All those stripes and spots will help to break up the body shape. Floronia bucculenta or maybe Drapetisca socialis: those were my guesses for an ID. Turns out (of course) to be neither. No, this is the Shadow hammock-spider - Labulla thoracica. Would you like me to explain the derivation of the common name this spider has? I bet you would! Truth is, I have no idea and my research has thus far drawn a blank. Here it is...

Dead fly or live moth? Erm... dead fly or live moth.? Live moth I think...

This beautiful moth was another first for my little garden. It's a Common Swift Moth: although, not so common in my garden obviously.

No! Not yet: Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can. Always in a woman, seldom in a man. 

The wasp beetle is a small, narrow-bodied longhorn beetle: it is black with yellow bands on the body, and relatively short antennae.

How to identify: The wasp beetle is a small, narrow-bodied longhorn beetle: it is black with yellow bands on the body, and relatively short antennae! 

This beetle besides being a wasp mimic, is also as I said, a longhorn beetle. Which ties in nicely with my next image, which is a longhorn bee...

Okay, so it's actually a 'Longhorned Bee' (Eucera longicornis) but a very interesting find. According to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust: 'this species has declined significantly across Britain and is now absent from many of the southern counties it used to be found in. As a result, it is considered a UK priority species. They are now mostly found in a small number of locations on the south coasts of England and Wales with some inland populations near Shropshire'.

'JJ': And of course Kent can now be added to that list!

There are lots and lots, I do mean lots, of hoverfly larvae around right now. This one seemed to be pretending to be a catkin, or flower/seed-head or summat...

Here's another hoverfly find: this one is green. Not sure of an identity though, there are so many similar ones, poss: Melansotoma species?

I'm sure there was something else I was going to share before I close this update? Now what was it...oh yes! I remember now...

Gruesome but fascinating? No question in my mind. This Dance fly, or Empid fly; possibly Empis tessellata, has fallen victim to a Pathogenic Fungus (Entomophthora muscae). A pathogen, in the broadest sense is anything that can cause a disease, an infectious agent. 

Here's the fascinating part though: 

The fungus enters the brain of the fly and causes it to land. It then forces it to climb to the top of a bush where it dies soon after. Then the fungal spores erupt from its legs and body and are spread by the wind. Because it is at a high point, the spores can spread a maximum distance, causing havoc for other flies. 

Well, as it said on the wall of the public toilets in Maidstone the other day...

'WE AIM TO PLEASE
You aim too please'

Farvel for nu chums!