Things to see while dipping Frog Orchids
Seek ID'd the Gentians variously as Autumn and Field, but on reading things up the the paler Field is unlikely in either the habitat or our area, and only has four petals per flower. SSS is flying in good numbers despite last year's drought.
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| Autumn Gentian |
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| Silver-spotted Skipper |
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| Chiltern Gentian |
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| Silver-spotted Skipper |
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| Brown Hairstreak (male) |
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| Southern Hawker |
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| Roesel's Bush-cricket |
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| Hairy Shieldbug |
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| The rare Silver Spotted Skipper recently emerged. Quite late this year. |
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| Silver Spotted Skipper |
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| Common Blue - Two's company three's a crowd. |
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| Parasols Mushroom management by the reserve ponies - in the dark and certainly well fed! |
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| Beefsteak Polypore |
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| Spotted Longhorn |
For the next few weeks, look out for the Brassy Long-horn (Nemophora metallica) a micromoth with spectacularly long antennae in the males. Females lay their eggs among the flowers of Scabious. See Sue Taylor's blog about the moth and it's hymenopteran parisitoid (Stilbops ruficornis).
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| Nemophora metallica (male) |
This hoverfly was seen while looking for Southern Migrant Hawkers at Whitecross Green Wood. Many thanks to John Bloomfield who advises that "it is probably a male (eyes meet at the top of the head) of the genus Syrphus. If it is, then identifying males to species level is not possible without microscopic examination. Another possibility is the related Epistrope genus, but again many of these can only be separated to species level by microscopic examination (eg of hair colour on scutellum)"
Stephen Burch
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| Hoverfly probably of genus Syrohus. © Stephen Burch |
A selection of flies from Little Wittenham and surrounds, 24th June 2023
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| Slender Striped Robberfly (Leptogaster cylindrica) |
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| Sphaerophoria scripta |
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| Chrysotoxum verralli (male) |
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| Eristalis pertinax (male) |
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| Banded General (Stratiomys potamida) |
