The "What is this bug?" thread

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I love those caterpillars. I don't come across them often, but when I do I'm always transfixed by the near illuminosity of the green colour they have.
 
Hi guys and gals, last night was visited by this gorgeous creature. He/she is still with me, hiding in the bathroom fixtures.
Size is just shy of 2 inch head to tail.
Before any clever clogs say it I know it's a moth :p but which one.. Googled it but came up with several different names..
OK over to you lot...

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Had to join PB to let you lot see it, hope it works ok.
 
Another moth. This one got all angry at me and stayed vibrating. To be fair I was trimming the hedge. ..
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That's an Angle Shades moth.

The vibration is a means by which a moth that is too cold to fly puts heat into its wing muscles so that if it needs to fly suddenly to escape danger, it can. The moth was probably feeling the vibrations of the hedge trimming and getting itself ready just in case it needed to flee.
 
Any ideas? Sorry for the poor pic but I didn't want to disturb the spider too much. Found in my garage. It's about an inch from toe to toe, a little darker than shown in the photo, body almost black but shiny.

spider.jpg
 
Any ideas? Sorry for the poor pic but I didn't want to disturb the spider too much. Found in my garage. It's about an inch from toe to toe, a little darker than shown in the photo, body almost black but shiny.

spider.jpg

That is one of the false widows. The shininess is distinctive. I think this is a female Steatoda grossa, next size down from the Steatoda nobilis that all the fuss was about this year. This species is now widespread in the UK, and not regarded as dangerous. I worked for years in offices that were crawling with them, and was never bitten (thought they can).
 
Thanks Harvestman. I thought it might be one of the false widows but didn't want to jump to that conclusion. They are very common round here and although I'm not likely to handle them I just leave them to it.
 
Not a devils coachhorse. The shape is wrong. It is a staphylinid beetle, but I have no idea which one. They are a very difficult group, and require a specialist.

However, I reckon it is probably Stenus sp. My book shows Stenus clavicornis which looks very similar, but it also says that there are 72 species of Stenus in the UK, and they all look similar.
 
Not a devils coachhorse. The shape is wrong. It is a staphylinid beetle, but I have no idea which one. They are a very difficult group, and require a specialist.

However, I reckon it is probably Stenus sp. My book shows Stenus clavicornis which looks very similar, but it also says that there are 72 species of Stenus in the UK, and they all look similar.

Thanks Mike
 
That looks like one of those ones that literally grabs hold of and munches earthworms. I find worms writhing with one of those skinny black beetles clenched tight around it like some swaggering mugger.
Not a clue what it does with the entirely of theworm though, which absolutely dwarfs it; the blackbird got both of them last time while they were too distracted by the battle.

M
 

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