The More Than 4 Legs Thread - Post Your Mini-Beasts Here

[andy]

One from today...




...Meta something. Aka lesser garden spider. Would need a microscope to examine the genitalia to be sure of the species. 

[andy]

Elephant hawk moth caterpillar, I think. 

[MJB]

Yeah, an Elephant Hawk moth. Facebook is full of photos of them as they're on the march looking for somewhere to pupate.

[andy]

Aug 29, 2024 17:10:43 GMT MJB said:

Yeah, an Elephant Hawk moth. Facebook is full of photos of them as they're on the march looking for somewhere to pupate.

Not so many of them up here apparently. Never seen an adult one.

[MJB]

Common Darter

common darter by Martin Bone, on Flickr

[MJB]

Comma enjoying Autumn's bounty.

comma by Martin Bone, on Flickr

[MJB]

Goat Moth Larva (about the size of my index finger)

goat moth larva by Martin Bone, on Flickr

[MJB]

Britain's largest spider, the Raft Spider.

raft spider by Martin Bone, on Flickr

Wasp Spider

wasp spider2 by Martin Bone, on Flickr

wasp spider by Martin Bone, on Flickr

Orb Weaver of some sort

orb weaver by Martin Bone, on Flickr

[MJB]

Another *%$& off sized caterpillar. A Fox Moth larva this time.

fox moth2 by Martin Bone, on Flickr

fox moth by Martin Bone, on Flickr

[gray1720]

That's a technical term, right?

[MJB]

Plenty of dragonflies still active. I found this pair of Common Darters.

common darter pair by Martin Bone, on Flickr

[peterob]

Could this possibly be two wasps mating ?  They drifted past me in flight before coming to the ground.  At first I thought it was a hornet that had caught a wasp but on inspection of the photo the best seen of the two looks like a yellow jacket queen.  We are coming up to the time of year that queens start to look for places to hibernate.

XH2S0043.jpg by Pete, on Flickr

[peterob]

Common Darter resting on a wooden step. It was quite active and wouldn't let me get close so the angle is a bit off and this is a heavy crop. Otherwise, there was nothing much about.

XH2S0004.jpg by Pete, on Flickr

[andy]

Oct 3, 2024 14:49:34 GMT peterob said:

Could this possibly be two wasps mating ?  They drifted past me in flight before coming to the ground.  At first I thought it was a hornet that had caught a wasp but on inspection of the photo the best seen of the two looks like a yellow jacket queen.  We are coming up to the time of year that queens start to look for places to hibernate.

XH2S0043.jpg by Pete, on Flickr

Looks like it. Nice spot.

Apparently the females run out of stored sperm, lay new queens and then go fill up their sperm store.

[MJB]

I found the 2x teleconverter I forgot I had, attached it to my Sigma 105mm macro and found it fully functioned so took it out hoping for some autumnal spiders. No spiders seen, but I managed to get these little critters instead. No idea what some of them are though. All handheld and natural light.

Harvestman, an Opilone, not a spider!

harvestman by Martin Bone, on Flickr

A very pristine Red Admiral (not with the macro, but EF100-400L + 1.4x teleconverter)

female red admiral by Martin Bone, on Flickr

Yellow Dung Fly, although I don't think it's that fussed what colour the turd is.

dung fly by Martin Bone, on Flickr

Fly, dunno what sort.

fly by Martin Bone, on Flickr

Another fly, a teeny-weeny brown jobby.

tiny brown fly by Martin Bone, on Flickr

The smallest of the bunch, about 3mm long at a guess. Looks a bit aphidish, but I really dont know.

no idea but it was about 3mm long by Martin Bone, on Flickr