Rockwolf 🇪🇺

Wow! Must be gorgeous seeing them in their natural habitat!

This stunning Clivia is from my late Grandma’s much larger plant. I’ve had it for about 15 years now, and this is just the 2nd time it is flowering for me! So beautiful! #HousePlant #Clivia

Cassida nebulosa

Cassida rubiginosa (left) & C. nebulosa (right).

A top find (not by me) on Wednesday's trip to Llanymynech Rocks was the tortoise beetle Cassida nebulosa, only the second VC40 record. Lovely thing. It appeared at the same time as the much commoner C. rubiginosa (the green one), allowing a nice side by side comparison.

My fave 🥰

Shieldbug is the lovey Gorse Shieldbug - Piezodorus lituratus (www.britishbugs.org.uk/heteroptera/...)

Lasiorhynchites cavifrons, a beautiful hairy beetle I found underneath an Oak tree. At a glance it looks black but it has a strong blue metallic colouration, although in the photos this has come out looking more green than blue (the specimen is very definitely blue, hardly green at all). A Nationally Scarce species apparently. #beetle

The Apple Leaf Weevil with a very long scientific name: Tatianaerhynchites aequatus. This was one of two beaten from Rowan in the local churchyard. A dark-coloured #weevil with a long rostrum. The wing cases are metallic red, darker at the base.

A Birch Leaf Roller, Deporaus betulae. A smart black weevil which, despite its vernacular and scientific names suggesting an association with birch, is also associated with alder and hazel (this one was on hazel).

A Hazel Leaf-roller, Apoderus coryli, one of just two British members of the family Attelabidae. The elongate black head is separated from its bright scarlet body by a narrow neck. The base of the legs are scarlet like the body but the rest of the legs are mainly black.

The weevil families Rhynchitidae and Attelabidae are beautiful beetles. Here we have the Nationally Scarce Lasiorhynchites cavifrons, Tatianaerhynchites aequatus (Apple Leaf Weevil), Deporaus betulae (Birch Leaf Roller) and Apoderus coryli (Hazel Leaf-roller). #UKBeetles #UKInverts

The leaf beetle Bruchus loti

A beetle for a change - the leaf beetle Bruchus loti found in dead Phragmites stems at Pembrey, Carmarthenshire this week. They feed on the seeds of legumes.

#beetles

Chiffchaff in the garden here in E Norfolk, my earliest returning bird by 5 days

Callitula pyrrhogaster

Callitula cf bicolor

Callitula cf bicolor

Wildlife Group's trip to Llanymynech Rocks on the England/Wales border yesterday in glorious sunshine produced the tiny (c. 2mm), wingless wasp Callitula pyrrhogaster as usual. But we also founds its fully-winged relative C. cf bicolor for a change.

Macro photograph, in top view, of two insects standing on a cluster of small, 4-petalled white flowers. Both insects have a red head and thorax and black at their back ends. The beetle on the right is slightly broader, and has a narrow white line separating the red and black parts of its body, as to suggest a narrow ant waist.

Model and mimic: a clever longhorn beetle (Euderces reichei, at right) tries its best to look like a local carpenter ant, Campontous decipiens, as they both feed on a spring dogwood flower. Brackenridge Field Laboratory, Texas.

The first few males of the Early Colletes mining bee (Colletes cunicularius) were out today in sandy ground on Rusthall Common

Thought this an unusual Common Quaker with the asymmetrical wing pattern, half normal and half f. confluens. In six years of trapping we've never seen a confluens form so half is better than nothing I suppose 😂 #DurhamVC66

A first for me today - Bristly Millipede (Polyxenus lagurus). They don't like to stop moving, so getting stacked shots was difficult. 3-4mm for the bigger ones, the little ones were tiny.

#ukwildlife #macrophotography

Psammoecus bipunctatus: a tiny orange brown beetle with a pair of black spots on the rear wing cases sitting on a pale plastic tray.

Swept the tiny beetle Psammoecus bipunctatus from pond side vegetation at Cornmill Meadows in the Lee Valley yesterday. #EssexWildlife #UKBeetles

Un #insecte qui vit uniquement dans la fourrure des castors, depuis que j'en ai entendu parler je voulais le trouver en Bourgogne : c'est chose faite ! Platypsyllus castoris, un minuscule #coléoptère vraiment étrange.
#entomologie #entomology #coleoptera

🤭

I think this is the springtail Entomobrya multifasciata but I wouldn’t get into a fistfight with anyone who thought otherwise.
#springtail #collembola #raunds #northants

Bee hotels

Bee hotels

Bee hotels on shed

Taking advantage of the good weather to install more bee hotels at the Lauriston Farm allotments, hopefully the local Red mason bees will move in and help pollinate the nearby fruit trees #Edinburgh

A large black beetle clinging to an Arum leaf. There are hints of purple around the legs and antennae, and the surface of its exoskeleton bears a series of deep punctures.

A large black beetle resting on the back of a hand.

Amazed to stumble across this Oil-beetle yesterday, something I rarely encounter. I'm leaning towards Black Oil-beetle as opposed to Violet as the rear margin of the (squarish) thorax appears relatively straight, but I'd welcome other's opinions.. #coleoptera

Illustrations of grasshopper, cricket and earwig on the front cover of a book called Field Guide to the Grasshoppers and Allies of Great Britain and Ireland

🦗 This #WorldWildlifeDay, discover Britain's grasshoppers, crickets & allied species in a brilliant new field guide!

It's co-written by our former colleague Björn Beckmann with recording scheme coordinator Peter Sutton.

Allied species are earwigs, stick insects, mantids and cockroaches 🪳

🧪 1/

A small bee is sunning itself on a strap-like green leaf. The bee is facing upwards and to the right of the picture. It has a collar of yellow hairs on its brown thorax, and it has a striped brown abdomen.

The glorious sunshine has brought forth Yellow-legged mining bees (Andrena flavipes) around the hyacinths in the garden.
#Bees

A Goldfinch on an old plant stem with seed heads still remaining. The bird has a bright red face with white and black behind. The back and chest are a peachy brown and the wings are black with white spots and a patch of vivid yellow

This Goldfinch was in my garden earlier, feasting on the Evening Primrose seeds from last year. It demonstrates the benefits of not cutting the old plants back too early.

#DailyNature #Bird
#WildlifeGardening

The early-flying mining bee Andrena clarkella in Calverley Grounds today

UK map showing overall distribution of Dark-edged Bee-fly (pale grey dots) and records so far for 2026 (black dots)

A very freshly emerged male Dark-edged Bee-fly, photo by Allan Burrows in Hertfordshire

Several more bee-flies seen today - hurray 😍 So far we have records for Surrey, Beds, Bucks, Kent, Herts, Middlesex and Guernsey. Where will they appear next? Please enjoy looking out for them and send in your sightings for #BeeFlyWatch - 📸 of the Herts bee-fly by @allanburrows.bsky.social

Thank you! I had!

Tetrix subulata, ground hopper spotted at Didlington today
@dorsetwildlife.bsky.social
@britishnatureguide.bsky.social
@rockwolf74.bsky.social

A selection of Green Shieldbugs and one of 12 , 7 spot ladybirds seen today at Didlington.
@dorsetwildlife.bsky.social
@rockwolf74.bsky.social
@britishnatureguide.bsky.social

Fabulous! Lovely to see 🥰

Only seen Red Admirals so far! Looking forward to seeing Brimstones!

Brimstone and Peacock today - my first butterflies of the year - always a landmark moment for my year. #butterflies