He's in the Jailhouse now...

Just sayin'

No, this update is not going to be about Brexit: it's just that I heard the news about Boris whilst writing this.

When people ask me (and they do) what it is about macro-photography in particular that attracts me, one word usually springs to mind. That word is detail. Oh I could flower it up and say that macro-photography allows us entry into an unseen world, it gives us superhuman vision and reveals in spectacular fashion the minutest organisms that the naked eye cannot even see; but underpinning all this, is detail. But this is a photographic blog in essence, and so what better way  to demonstrate it than with a few photos...

The photographs above are just phone grabs it's true: the first being straight from my phone, with the second and bottom ones being progressive crops. Nice enough I guess if you just wanted a snapshot, or were partially interested in the nasturtium flower the bug is sitting on. 

But once I  fired up the macro and put it on the same bug, the details revealed were, well judge for yourselves..

A Bronze Shieldbug-Troilus luridus

And this last one from a little later, when it had moved position...

Look at those armoured shoulders, the projections/spikes that are barely visible in my phone images. I hadn't realised that I have been photographing this species of shieldbug for at least ten years, until I found an image of mine that 'British Bugs' had used back in 2009 of an instar...

This next critter was something of a surprise...

A Great Diving Beetle

This is one of, if not the largest of our UK beetles and is an aquatic beetle. They live in freshwater, either still or slow-moving and are voracious predators. This one is a female: I know that because only females have grooved wing cases. They can, and do fly between bodies of water, but even so, I was surprised to find one on my garden path. 

Just before we leave the garden, a few photos of a pollen-laden bumblebee to share...

What's next? Oh yes, I know

I know, you were expecting a picture of a weasel having seen Boris, right! No, not a weasel, but a weevil. A big vine weevil actually and although I find them in the garden (yes...I DO know they are bad for my garden, just don't care) this one was on the wall inside the house the other day. 

I decided to ignore the BBC Gardening advice of 'remove and destroy any adults', opting for a more humane 'carefully place back in the garden', everything has the right to life! Except perhaps the plants this weevil consumes that is ;-)

When I saw this harvestman I thought to myself, I know what this is, even though I couldn't pronounce the scientific name, I knew it was something like 'Diclodopus ramesses'! Even though this is a pale example (maybe just moulted?) you can see from the body shape, and palps, that it fits for this species: at least you could if I shared the other photo...

Do you see how in this species the palps are forked? (although they look okay to me!)

And so the correct name for this one is 'Dicranopalpus ramosus'. Or is it? Perhaps 'Dicranopalpus ramosus agg'. is more correct since this recent news story appeared:

Harvestmen, close relatives of the spiders, aren't always easy to identify to species level. Dicranopalpus ramosus has always been an exception, easy to identify from the arrangement of the long legs and the forked pedipalps. Until now...

 A new scientific paper proposes that 'Dicranopalpus caudatus' is a valid separate species from 'Dicranopalpus ramosus' rather than just a different name for the same beast. Unfortunately, you can't tell the two species (which occur in the same range) apart without a microscope. 

So it looks as if we may need to start recording Dicranopalpus ramosus as "agg" - an aggregate of more than one common species where it's not possible to dissect every specimen.

I found this neato little moth when I was out walking one day. I have failed to get an ID for it yet, but then my moth skills are sadly lacking: I would do better looking for a politician who tells the truth!


Back to the garden...

Which incidentally is the exact title of a cracking little vinyl album by Dave Cartwright that I bought in...well, never mind when I bought it, it was a long time ago!

We are into September, which is a song by Earth...Oh you know who did that, right? Back to the business in hand: September's arrival means a slowing down of bug activity in the garden, except for butterflies that is. The bush buddleia flowers now and that always attracts butterflies. As well as the red admiral pictured above, I have already seen 5 other species. 

Just today (Sept 7th) I watched a female white butterfly  laying eggs on the nasturtiums, then moving on to the buddleia to feed. The eggs were laid singly and so I assume it was a small white butterfly...

Although, the egg was laid on the upper side of the leaf and that is unusual for a small white.


I'll leave you with a monster!

Head shot of an Elephant Hawk-moth caterpillar