Thursday, May 9, 2013

400 for Guernsey

Hypera postica

Trying to catch up after a few pedestrian weeks, I have been hitting the keys big time, and the weevil above becomes species number 400 for the square. Lots of great stuff, but being primarily a birder, the highlight for me was the Hobby circling behind the house a couple of evenings ago.

366 - Great Brome
367 - Red Admiral (first butterfly at last!)
368 - Common Poppy
369 - Wallflower
370 - Scarlet Lily Beetle
371 - Lesser Swine-cress
372 - Harpalus affinis (beetle)
373 - Cryptops hortensis (centipede)
374 - Lasius emarginatus (Channel Islands speciality ant species)
375 - Lasius niger (Black Garden Ant)
376 - Myrmica scabrinodis (ant)
377 - Wood Forget-me-not (garden escape)
378 - Alder (self-seeded sapling)
379 - Speckled Wood
380 - Hairy Tare
381 - Cydia ulicetana (tortrix moth)
382 - Andrena fulva (Tawny Mining Bee)
383 - Holly Blue
384 - Taphropeltus contractus (ground-bug)
385 - Red Fescue
386 - Diamond-back Moth
387 - Syrphus ribesii (hoverfly)



388 - Protapion fulvipes (White Clover Seed Weevil)
389 - Melanostoma scalare (hoverfly)
390 - Grammotaulius nigropunctatus (caddisfly)
391- Bright-line Brown-eye
392 - Shuttle-shaped Dart
393 - Mompha epilobiella (moth)
394 - Chocolate-tip


395 - Common Pug
396 - Tawny Shears
397 - Two-spot Ladybird
398 - Creeping Cinquefoil
399 - Hobby
400 - Hypera postica (weevil)

Reading the posts on here I have been so impressed by people's identification skills, I am hoping that today (and all summer!) someone may offer suggestions on some seemingly distinctive species that I find, that I have no chance of ID'ing on my own, being a beginner to this pan-species malarkey:

A red-headed fly with a grey back and red abdomen

this fly was maroon with a bright white face and chin

this tiny toadstool was found underneath a plant pot, sprouting out of the ground amongst an ants' nest.










6 comments:

  1. I think the maroon fly is a conopid of the genus Sicus. In Britain, it is pretty safe to call them S. ferrugineus as the other species, S. abdominalis, has only been recorded once, in 1906.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Mark. Thanks for picking out the family Conopidae for me - never heard of it! Googling the different genera in the family which are on the Guernsey Diptera list, the genus Myopa seems a closer match to the picture than Sicus. What do you think?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I was thinking Myopa testacea - I had the one in this link down as Siccus ferrugineus initially but Dave Gibbs pointed out it was Myopa, and subsequently Steve Falk came back with testacea:
    http://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/myopa-testacea

    ReplyDelete
  4. Think the first fly is a Scathophaga sp., maybe Scathophaga inquinata but don't hold me to it!). Probably needs a closer look to be certain.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Found a key for Myopa species on the internet and it does appear to be Myopa testacea - thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks for the correction. Would be really good to get Dave Gibbs to comment on fly photos on this blog - I'll ask.

    ReplyDelete