Sharpenhoe - Other Insects

I went hunting for these Thistle Gall flies having been fascinated  on a previous visit by their iridescent eyes and bright orange antennae and mouthparts. They were joined during our RPS visit by a host of other species

Dragonflies, Damselflies and Orchids at Paxton

Every third Thursday in the month Paxton Pits runs a Nature Walk and I often act as back-up leader as today. The dominant wild life were the dragon and damselflies including Scarce Chasers, 4-spot Chasers, Keeled skimmer, Banded Demoiselle, Green Eyed Hawkers, Common Blue and Blue-tailed Damselflies plusPyramidal Orchid (with Cone-head Grasshopper) and Bee Orchid

Grasshoppers and Crickets in Crete

Crete has a wonderful range of Grasshoppers and Crickets - here are just a few with tentative IDs.

Lackford wide-angle Insects

The only insects that we photographed other than dragonflies at Lackford Lakes were very small insects in a patch of fleabane. No doubt if we had stopped and closely studied other areas, there would have been more small insects and spiders. These are taken with 23mm fixed lens on Fuji X100V with Raynox closeup lens - a lighting system would have been useful as the aperture used was too wide to get adequate depth of field so close.

Lark Rise Farm Barton

Although the insects were far fewer than last year, we did find a good variety of species some like the Beetles on the Carrot seed heads were numerous. Here a few 'portraits' of the more attractive species (depending of course on your appreciation of the insect world!!). The minute Tephrid flies (4mm) with their irridescent eyes were a particular challenge as they didn't stay still for long