Bugs and birds

 I've seen a couple of beautiful bugs in the last week, as the Spring weather (wet, but warmer) has come in. As always, my bug identification is rubbish, so I guess that these are both beetles, Coleoptera, but can only guess at the family. This one might be a Tiger Beetle (Cicindellidae family), but equally it might not:

Beetle, feeling waspish

And this one could be a Leaf Beetle (Chrysomelidae family) but equally could be one of the other zillion species of bug. Either way, she or he is a beautiful metallic gold colour.

Auric, the bug

Some of the bugs are being consumed by the birds, and a pair of Blue tits, Parus caeruleus, have made a nest in the dead tree that supports our washing line. Here is one, bringing a bug back for the babes:

 

Caught in a trophic web

 

Bug Bugged

So here's another one, seen today just below the sheep field. This time I can't even guess the Order, let alone the Family. I mean, it might be Diptera - it appears to have two wings (not four), and two short antennae, with a long and dangerous looking mouth-part. But those might be elytra (wing cases) in front of the wings, and that could make it a Coleoptera.

I fear that this bug business could get a bit obsessive...

Distinct lack of Order

I'm bugged

Beetle identification is a mystery. The beetle Family - Coleopterae - are so hugely varied, with my insect guidebook noting for example that there are 30,000 species of Leaf Beetle, each different from the other.

I had thought that this bug, found today in the bark of a pine I was chopping up, was a Snout Beetle (Curculionidae), with a mere 41,000 species world-wide to chose from. Wrong again - what I thought was the elongated snout is in fact two chubby antennae. I'm bugged if I know what this is, but if anyone out there can identify her or him, let me know.

Bored, of Barking

Double Bug

Two scenes of, er, bug intimacy this week.

The first is a pair of clegs (horse flies), Tabanidae. I have an admiration-hate relationship with clegs. Admiration for their extraordinary efficiency and accuracy - they can attack a horse's legs - or mine - fast and from a distance, but land with such precision that you feel nothing until the wee bu&&er has bitten a chunk out of you, at which they fly off, again at high speed but this time in a dodging, zigzag flight path that makes them impossible to swat. Hate, because they are a constant summer nuisance for the donkeys.

But the admiration part of the equation increased with this pair who managed to couple on an orange-tree leaf, and then fly off, still coupled in perfect coordination, when my camera got too close.

This is giving me a buzz

Clegs fight the stereotype; it is she that bites the donkeys, while he floats around our garden flowers eating only nectar.


And then there were these two. They were locked in a love scene at the entrance to a mouse burrow, like two sumo wrestlers. These two barely moved when I approached, and were clearly not going anywhere for anyone. 

It's boring but it works