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Sunday 4 November 2018

Macro Natural History photographs.

Hello world.

Here is the promised macro images post I promised. In 17 hours, I shall be in hospital, having a full left knee replacement. Think good thoughts for me please, thank you.

I'm only going to add the minimum of text to these images, due to time constraints on me. If anyone wants to know more about the subject(s) in one, or more of the following insects or plants, try the internet search function. There is a world of info out there on most of these things. In the last blog post, I think I said they would all be ones taken this year. Once I started to sort out the photos, I realised that I hadn't taken many this year, on account of me not being able to walk very well. I decided that I would show things from the last three years, which I thought had some visual merit.

The first is a beautiful moth, the Canary Shouldered Thorn.

Canary Shouldered Thorn.
Canary Shouldered Thorn detail.

Another pretty moth below, I was pleased with this photo.

Small Magpie Moth.

I didn't expect to see the moth below but a neighbour brought a live one to me in his sandwich box. (Thanks Peter). This moth is one of the bigger UK ones, with a wingspan of  65-90 mm
Poplar Hawk Moth.

A lovely butterfly now, the Comma. So called because it has a whitish comma shape on the underside of each wing, (not shown here).

Comma.

Two shots of a Green Shield bug next. Shield bugs go through several changes before they become adult, even then, the Green Shield bug has a winter and summer colouring. These changes are called "Instars". Bellow are two photos of the Green Shield bug. the first is an adult in the summer, the second and adult in the winter.

Green Shield bug (summer).

Green Shield bug (winter).

For good measure, I thought I'd show a detail of the Hawthorn Shield Bug. Note that the black mark on each side of the red patch, are NOT it's eyes. they are a defence mechanism. It's real eyes are the two small parts at the end of it's "snout".

Hawthorn Shield Bug.

Green Dock Beetles mating.

I was unable to identify the following fly. I need more experience with Diptera (True Flies). There are a huge number of them in the family. I can only identify
a few. Should anyone happen to know this one, please leave me a note in the comments of this blog.

Detail of a fly.

The next is a woodlouse. I did some research into them about two years ago. I became quite fond of them. They are harmless to humans and don't carry diseases. Even better, they eat things like dry rot. This is a nice photo of one type:

Painted Woodlouse.

The next creature is quite a pest. It's larvae killed all our newly bought Heuchera plats last year. They eat the roots off them.

Vine Weevil.

A detail of it's head.

I've tried for some years to get a photo of one of these. Every time I got near one it jumped away. This year, I finally managed. 

Common Field Grasshopper.

I should have put the following photo with the other lepidoptera, I forgot it.

Small Cabbage White Butterfly caterpillar.

Some of you will be pleased to discover that I've finished with insects in this post, it's now all plants.

Scarlet Waxcap fungi.

A Larch Fircone with a
Mycena stipata agg., 
toadstool growing from it. 

Silverleaf Fungus on decaying beech log.

A couple of lichens now. I've been fascinated with them for many years. To me, they look like alien plants. It's a very difficult area of study, I can only recognise and identify a few lichens as yet.

 
Cladonia floerkeana.

Pixie Cup Lichen.

One of the many mosses now. When my wife saw it, she commented that huge numbers of people will have walked passed these without ever seeing how attractive they are.
Ripe seedheads of the Elegant Bristle Moss.

The last three images are of garden plants.

An Ice Plant or Mesembryanthemum seedpod.

Below is a macro shot of an empty Fritillary seed pod. I counted all the flat seeds which it were in it, it held 99. Nature is amazing at package design.

Empty Fritillary seed pod.

Now for the last image. I though I should end with a big splash of colour.  Isn't nature wonderful?

Detail of a mature Zinnia flower.

I have no idea how long it will take for me to recover from the forth coming operation. I do all my blogging up two flights of stairs on my more powerful graphics PC. Two flights of stairs is a LOT after a knee replacement. I'll try not to let it be as long a gap as it was after the first op. So, don't think I've given up posting, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Be kind to each other. Gordon.




1 comment:

  1. A fine celebration of the glories of the natural world.

    ReplyDelete