lingo.lol is one of the many independent Mastodon servers you can use to participate in the fediverse.
A place for linguists, philologists, and other lovers of languages.

Server stats:

59
active users

#bugoftheday

4 posts3 participants2 posts today
Continued thread

And on the drone fly front, a few not so good pictures snatched between showers to show that we do indeed have males, not just the females as posted on the last two days.

The clue is in the eyes – in males, they touch, while in females they're separated.

Two pictures of a male common drone fly (Eristalis tenax) & one of a male tapered drone fly (Eristalis pertinax).

#Photography 📷
#BugOfTheDay 🪰
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#InsectsOfMastodon 🕸️
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲

Still alternating between sun & showers here, but the insects have to make a living somehow 🤷‍♂️

Something new today – a female lesser hornet hoverfly or wasp plumehorn (Volucella inanis). In German, it's the Gebänderte Waldschwebfliege or banded forest hoverfly 🐝

This wasp/hornet-mimic hoverfly lays its its eggs in the nests of genuine wasps & hornets, & its larvae are ectoparasites of theirs 😬✌️

#Photography 📷
#BugOfTheDay 🪰
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#InsectsOfMastodon 🕸️
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲

Had to go out in the 30°C heat of the day for my 50km ride today, to avoid forecast heavy rain & storms this evening 🌞🥵⛈️

The bad: too hot & too sunny, & by the second half of the ride I was stopping every 5km to overcome nausea 🤢

The good: lots of dragonflies & damselflies at the Fischkinderstube pond nr Edingen. That made me happy 🙂

Most were skittish, hence the rubbish phone pix 🤷‍♂️ ID in ALT TEXT for each one.

#CyclingLife 🚴‍♂️
#BugOfTheDay 🪰
#Photography 📷
#InsectsOfMastodon 🪲

Now *that's* what I call a defensive posture 🙀

Or should that be posterior? 🤪

The spiky arse on this little fly is remarkable – it's a Tachina ferox, also known as Nowickia ferox.

In German, it's a Schwarzfühler Borstenfliege or roughly "black antenna bristle fly".

It was flying around too quickly to get a definitive single shot, but between the four photos, you'll get the idea 🤷‍♂️

#Photography 📷
#BugOfTheDay 🪰
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#InsectsOfMastodon 🕸️
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲

No time earlier in the day & very little light left in the evening, so not much chance to see who was around in the garden 🤷‍♂️

But revisiting a subject from ten days ago or so, here's a not very sharp picture of a ferruginous bee-grabber fly (Sicus ferrugineus) from above.

The sprinkling of small pink flowers on its head somehow conjures up a bridesmaid ... or maybe that's just me 😬✌️

#Photography 📷
#BugOfTheDay 🪰
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#InsectsOfMastodon 🕸️
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲

Primus inter pares 🙂👍

My favourite butterfly of the summer so far – a common blue (Polyommatus icarus) in the garden today 🦋

The black & white fringed blue topside means it's a male – the females have a range of browns & blues, with orange edge spots. The underside is pretty as well.

Pictures aren't super-sharp – I was struggling to keep my footing in a steep location, trying to get closer 😬

#Photography 📷
#BugOfTheDay 🪰
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#InsectsOfMastodon 🕸️
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲

Bee-draggled 🐝😬

A sudden & heavy thunder shower this evening caught out this poor bumblebee, along with many of its colleagues harvesting the lavender bush ⛈️

I suspect they'll be ok if they have a chance to dry off – it was sunny for a while after, & it's still above 20ºC & not raining at the moment 🤞

But if you think it'd be best to move them into a dry spot outdoors, let me know 👍

#Photography 📷
#BugOfTheDay 🪰
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#InsectsOfMastodon 🕸️
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲

We now know that Tigger is capable of sitting in the bushes at the end of our garden for the length of an entire Wimbledon final 🎾🙀

Not that that was too long today, mind you 😬

This small fly came & sat next to me for a while, & was unphased as I pushed in with the macro lens.

I suspect it's a common green bottle fly (Lucila sericata), but am not 100% sure – the black facial stripe is throwing me.

#Photography 📷
#BugOfTheDay 🪰
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#InsectsOfMastodon 🕸️
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲

Continued thread

And although this picture of another carpenter bee is nothing like as crisp overall, I can't resist sharing it too.

Not only does it illustrate the wings in their full metallic violet-blue glory, but it also captures a fleeting moment of garden drama, as a small spider crawls on the bee's head & a honey bee cruises in from behind.

It just goes to show how big the carpenter bees are 🙀

#Photography 📷
#BugOfTheDay 🪰
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#InsectsOfMastodon 🕸️
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲

I've been meaning to make a photographic catalogue of the many bee species in our garden 🐝

Today was not a good day to start, with dark clouds & intermittent rain 🌦️

But this picture illustrates the scope of the problem. Even if you do get a good shot, identifying the species can be hard 🙀

Are these Bombus terrestris (buff-tailed bumblebees) or Bombus lucorum (white-tailed). Anyone? 🤷‍♂️

#Insects 🪳
#Photography 📷
#BugOfTheDay 🪰
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#iPhonePhotography 📱
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲