Football v Nature...

Here in England, there is no escape from 'the beautiful game' (yeah, right) that is the FIFA World Cup. Apparently, erstwhile England manager Bill Shankly, once said that football is more important than life and death. If however you are one of the minority who even dares to admit that football leaves you cold, then may I suggest that you come on in to my latest blog update right now! 

It's lovely in here, honest it is: it even smells great, like wild English honeysuckle after summer rain. Despite what old shaky-Shankly thinks, there is more to life than kicking a pig's bladder around a park!  And as Van Gogh once said "If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere". C'mon, do like Robbie Williams did at the opening ceremony, stick a middle finger up and...."Let me entertain you"...♫♫♫

(Click on any photo for a larger view)

Scathophaga stercoraria

What better to begin this update than this beautiful..........DUNG Fly! 

Yes, as its common name suggests, this fly is not only found on the feces of large mammals, but it also breeds there. If you find this abhorrent, then consider the following: the abundance of these flies has been directly influenced by intensive farming by us humans: and so now they are  integral in the animal kingdom, due to their role in the natural decomposition of dung in fields.

Shall we progress to something that is truly beguiling...

OK, I know it's only a fly, but come on, even flies look good in the right light huh? 

These few photographs are all from an early morning trip that I took to Marden Meadows recently. Marden Meadows is a nature reserve east of Marden here in Kent, and is managed by the Kent Wildlife Trust. It is also a site of special scientific interest. 

A Hoverfly (Estralis species)

The hoverfly pictured above, on one of the many large, white daisies that litter the meadows right now, is trying to emulate a honey bee. They are quite good mimics, but unlike the bees,  have only one pair of wings, and no sting. They can be tricky to tell apart, but I think this one is E.tenax.  

Whereas these next photos are of a honey bee, and a very wet one at that!

I also came across this tiny creature: I think this is a leaf beetle larva...

You can possibly tell from these photographs that it was quite a dewy morning. It must be a  fairly vulnerable time for the bugs as they cannot fly until all that water has dispersed, or has been evaporated by the sun,  from their wings. 

Way back in July of 2014 I blogged about a species of weevil called Hypera rumicis, I described the pupal cases of these weevils as being like 'wild spun sugar' (that blog entry is HERE by the way, if you would like to come back and view it after reading this update). Well, I managed to photograph some more of these structures, at Marden Meadows this time. As with everything else I found, they were covered in dew drops...

You can clearly see the larva inside this case

I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet

I looked up and saw this ladybird so sweet...

I wonder if male ladybirds mind being called ladies?

And if all of these pictures haven't been enough to hold your interest...well, you won't be reading this I guess! Assuming that you are though, my final offering from my early morning photo shoot is this voyeur image of two bonking beetles. 

This next photo is one that I took closer to home a few days ago...

Pentatoma rufipes

This is a final instar (the last stage before becoming an adult bug) of the Red-legged Shieldbug. They are quite large bugs when adult; you can see an adult HERE in a post from 2011 that I wrote about bugs moulting.

Yes, time to blow the whistle on this particular update before we get into injury time. I shall leave you with a final thought on 'the beautiful game' (that's football, in case you were confused) from a guy called Graham, who called the radio show '5 Live Breakfast, to share these pearls of wisdom..."The game is run by spivs, chancers and gangsters, it's played by morons and it's watched by cretins". Phew! So pleased my name is not Graham...heresy! 

How about a triptych ending then? (couldn't be bothered keeping the football analogy going by calling it a hat-trick) Applying the term loosely of course; here are three photographs I took of a fabulous Puss moth larva...

If you are thinking that it is quite an odd looking caterpillar, just take a look at how it looks immediately prior to pupating...

That'll be all for now chums. Take care until we meet back here for update number 221 in which I will attempt to alienate all cricket lovers, by suggesting that it is the most boring sport...

My good 'Flickr friend' Jason, has some lovely photos of the green veined orchids at Marden Meadows that you might like to check out HERE

American Pie anybody?

long, long time ago, but I can still remember how that music used to make me smile, and I knew if I had my chance that I could make those people dance and maybe they'd be happy for a while...

But then I thought, sod it! What have they ever done for me? And so I flung off my John Travolta white suit and settled down to write this blog update...

And you can stop laughing at the thought of JJ in a white suit thank-you! It's stemming the flow of my creative juices. 

Here we go then, it's Saturday November 221st as I write and...oh hang on, not 221st that would be ridiculous, 21st was what I meant. Looking out the window I feel that bug-hunting might have to be put on hold for a while? 

   

                A couple of participation photos to begin this update. We'll start  with...

           You must name the species from the silhouette, good luck.Fingers on buzzers!

                               

Too easy huh...thought it might be. Try this for something a little more taxing... 

      

Me? Haven't a clue. Alright I have an idea about the second one, and of course I know what the first one is because there would be little point in me setting a quiz that I didn't hold the answer too. 

Weevily type weevil thingies next...

I suppose you'll be wanting me to identify these weevils for you? Okay, how's this. The first two are the same and the second one isn't. 

A little bit of...

I was able to keep a watch on the sawfly larva I found at a local pond as it was on a small alder shrub and never did move from the one leaf I first spied it on. It grew into quite an impressive thing before disappearing from sight overnight...

Cimbex connatus-A Large Alder Sawfly Larva (Hymenoptera)

An instance of my perceived weirdness now. What would most people do when they find a dead wasp in the window do you think? I'm guessing something a world apart from what I chose to do. Namely, use the opportunity to get a stacked image of the beast. Good fun but I wish I'd made a better fist of it. Not enough light!

What do I mean by not enough light? Let me re-phrase it, it was too dark! The longer explanation would be that I was trying to manage with natural light from the window only.However, I should have gone with my gut and not the camera's light sensor as I did. The lack of available (and even) light has resulted in a loss of clarity. 

That's okay though, life is a learning curve isn't it. If not then this is...

Actually, mine can be a bit more like this...

I have a problem. You see, ever since I ot this new laptop, the letter 'G' has been stickin . If you ive it a ban  it sometimes works, but  od! I  ets so frustrated banin  it.
Now I don't mean to be a  rouch, or a  rump about this. I am trying to be grown-up. Gosh! it worked that time, perhaps it is  radually improvin  ?

 onna i nore it and carry on re ardless...

A long, long time ago, but I can still remember, because it was January this year when I found this...

I thought at the time that it was a spider egg sac but wasn't sure and had no idea of species. Somebody suggested walnut orb-weaver possibly. Anyhow, I managed to find it again, it was early March and by this time the eggs inside and indeed, developing spiderlings were starting to show...

By the third week of March, they had emerged...

I think these could well be walnut orb-weaver spiderlings. Here's a single individual...

Well the first of these two pictures above is definitely slime mould but is the second fungi too? What else could it be?

I'll leave you to ponder that but please...don't lose any sleep over it? Meanwhile, here's an image I constructed from the patterns of a small tortoiseshell butterfly...

Until the next time...