Social Distancing Week 2, Dark-edged Bee-fly This little creature cheered me up last weekend. The bee-fly is one of my favourite heralds of spring and 22 March is the earliest I have seen one. It was a bit like seeing my first swallow a week before it was expected. However, unlike the swallow, the bee-fly…
Tag: paul leyland
Paul Leyland – Buff-tailed Bumblebee
Social Distancing Week 1, Buff-tailed Bumblebee I had great plans this year to visit several parts of the UK looking for new insects, unfortunately the plans have come to a halt. I have decided instead to search locally, avoiding as much human contact as possible. Fortunately I live in a quiet area of North Yorkshire…
Paul Leyland – Rhingia campestris
Paul writes: Rhingia campestris is one of the most recognisable hoverflies, it’s often known as the Heineken hoverfly and was the subject of a very early post of mine on Mark’s Blog. I described it then as common and widespread throughout the UK. In only 2 years things have possibly changed dramatically. The drought of…
Paul Leyland – Cistogaster globosa
Paul writes: If this was a bird, rather than a fly, I would expect to look out of my kitchen window and see half a dozen people with scopes and binoculars walking up and down the field path, all hoping to add to their Yorkshire List. As it is, flies are not so sought after….
Paul Leyland – Leafcutter Bee
Paul writes: if you have a bee hotel in your garden and notice that some of the tubes have been sealed with a green leaf then you have a Leafcutter Bee in residence. Another piece of evidence you may find are circular cut-outs from the edges of leaves on your plants. Leafcutter Bees are solitary…
Paul Leyland – Drinker moth
Paul writes: the Drinker (Euthrix potatoria) is a regular visitor to my garden at this time of year, it has a wingspan of 25mm or more so is a real beast of a moth. It usually makes itself known by flapping wildly at a window or may even fly through if the window is open….
Paul Leyland – Blue-winged Tachinid
Paul writes: I came across this beautiful fly last week, along a wide footpath through the woods near Allerston in North Yorkshire. July is a great time for finding flies feeding on umbellifers, the flowers are at just the right height for comfortable viewing and there are lots of them in the right habitat. There…
Paul Leyland – Rutpela maculata
Paul writes: I start to see these photogenic beetles around the middle of June and they stay around until the end of August. Rutpela maculata is probably the commonest of the Longhorn (Cerambicidae) beetle family, it is certainly the one I see most often. They are easy to see in the right habitat, their bright…
Paul Leyland – Volucella bombylans
Paul writes: there are several hoverflies which mimic bumblebees, Volucella bombylans is the most common and widespread. It is also probably the cleverest, as it comes in several colour forms to enable it to mimic a number of different species. This one, with its yellow and white markings, goes with the white-tailed bumblebees, whilst another…
Paul Leyland – Grizzled Skipper
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Paul Leyland: This is a new butterfly for me in the UK. I’ve seen plenty in mainland Europe but it was nice to find one closer to home. I saw it on 20 June at Lullington Heath on the South Downs in East Sussex. This is a lovely National Nature Reserve which consists of two…