The "What is this bug?" thread
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It isn't even green! Well at least you still have your sense of humour. British Red has it spot on. Brimstone moth.Thanks for the laugh.
(only minimal offence intended)
Looks like a species of crane fly, but you'll have to wait till our resident crawly luvver comes around and takes a butchers.
Okaaaaay, Spotted cranefly it is. BILLy has a male, Red's is a female (shape of the tip of the abdomen, if you are interested)
Now to species. There are two species, and they are hard to separate, but in this case I think both are Nephrotoma flavescens, which is characterised by a thin abdominal stripe which is usually broken up into spots (hence the name). it is more obvious in the female than the male, but BILLy's male doesn't have a wide enough stripe for N. appendiculata, the alternative.
Now to species. There are two species, and they are hard to separate, but in this case I think both are Nephrotoma flavescens, which is characterised by a thin abdominal stripe which is usually broken up into spots (hence the name). it is more obvious in the female than the male, but BILLy's male doesn't have a wide enough stripe for N. appendiculata, the alternative.
It took me ages to hunt them down and since I have moved house I have found at least 10! Yesterday alone I found 5 as I stripped out cupboards from a brick built shed.
I present to you, what I believe, is the daily mail spider.... oh... er.... sorry.... False widow!
If I am right, correct me if I am wrong
, I have found 2 different species:
[edit]Now I am thinking they are the same species... but just one with more apparent markings![/edit]
Stetoda nobilisSteatoda grossa?
Steatoda grossa (or Bipuncta!? How can you tell!!!)
Thanks
I present to you, what I believe, is the daily mail spider.... oh... er.... sorry.... False widow!
If I am right, correct me if I am wrong
, I have found 2 different species:[edit]Now I am thinking they are the same species... but just one with more apparent markings![/edit]
Steatoda grossa (or Bipuncta!? How can you tell!!!)
Thanks
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It took me ages to hunt them down and since I have moved house I have found at least 10! Yesterday alone I found 5 as I stripped out cupboards from a brick built shed.
I present to you, what I believe, is the daily mail spider.... oh... er.... sorry.... False widow!
If I am right, correct me if I am wrong
[edit]Now I am thinking they are the same species... but just one with more apparent markings![/edit]
Stetoda nobilisSteatoda grossa?
Steatoda grossa (or Bipuncta!? How can you tell!!!)
Thanks
Very interesting. The darker one looks like S. grossa, the one with a pattern more like S. nobilis. Size is a good marker here, as S. nobilis is bigger than the S. grossa. It is perfectly possible to have both. S. bipunctata is much smaller than either. When measuring go from the front of the head to the tip of the abdomen. Ignore legs.
Here's a helpful reference on the spiders that will also tell you a bit more about them. Personally, neither would worry me in the slightest as house spiders.
http://wiki.britishspiders.org.uk/index.php5?title=False_Widow_Spiders
I think it is a drinker moth caterpillar.
As it is not yet an adult moth, I can say that it is a genuine under-age drinker!
Coat already collected...
As it is not yet an adult moth, I can say that it is a genuine under-age drinker!
Coat already collected...
Hat off to you for knowledge; even if you took two go's. The area where the beastie was lurking has recently been strimmed so I was wondering what it might prefer to eat. A quick Google suggests that it likes hazel so I will relocate it to a suitable tree.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Here's another bumblebee species from me. The bilberry bumblebee, Bombus monticola, a northern and upland species.
Found this on the Greek Island of Kos on my recent holiday. Never seen anything quite like it. It looks as if it only has 4 legs but it must have 6 surely?
It was big too. Around 4 inches long and when I poked it with the room key it was incredibly aggresive. I'm used to bugs scuttling away when touched but this was ready to fight and constantly turned to face threat. Gladly it was a metal room key I used rather than my finger as it looked like it could give a pretty nasty bite.
The closest thing I've found to looking like it on Google images is a cockroach but those rear tails are much shorter and the body doesn't have such a long shape in the pictures I found.
Fascinating little creature. Does anyone know what it is?
20140528_215650 by davidpingu, on Flickr
It was big too. Around 4 inches long and when I poked it with the room key it was incredibly aggresive. I'm used to bugs scuttling away when touched but this was ready to fight and constantly turned to face threat. Gladly it was a metal room key I used rather than my finger as it looked like it could give a pretty nasty bite.
The closest thing I've found to looking like it on Google images is a cockroach but those rear tails are much shorter and the body doesn't have such a long shape in the pictures I found.
Fascinating little creature. Does anyone know what it is?
20140528_215650 by davidpingu, on Flickr
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