Wednesday 24 August 2016

Other wildlife at Blaencaerau today

Besides 29 species of hoverfly there was a good cross-section of other species present today.

 Slow Worm
 Nicrophorus vespilloides - burying beetle that lays its eggs in this shrew carcass and then bury it
 Red-tailed Bumblebee - seems to be quite scarce this year
 Sloe (hairy) Shieldbug
 Mole carcass - next on the list for the burying beetles, must have drowned during the storms, when its tunnels become flooded quickly.
 Stictoleptura rubra female - again
 Eristalis nemorum - triple stack mating display behaviour. The only species of hoverfly to do this.
Leucozona lucorum - essentially a spring species, but does have a smaller 2nd generation in late summer. Notice how the white on T2 is tinged with orange. First generation lucorum have a pure white T2.

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