Today was much the same, except all of it in the garden, It was a bit milder overnight but decided not to run the moth trap. On my hands and knees weeding I came face to face with a tiny longhorn moth with big white antennae and metallic bronze wings - Adela reaumurella. This was new for the garden as well as for the year. It is common enough on the fell where the caterpillar lives on leaf litter (what I was tidying up), so I wonder if I have missed it and it actually lives in the garden? I watched it for some time as it flitted from leaf to leaf waving it huge antennae about. Then I crept away for my camera but I could never find it again.
Wandering around in the garden with the camera I now had ready but no moth, I took a few more pictures of Bee-fly that are still about all over the garden, I've never had this many before. Now this fly is well known for its very long proboscis that looks like a a scary looking spike. All the photos I've have both taken and seen show it ending in a sharp point. However looking through today's photos, in one it looks forked. It's certainly the same species Bombylius major with the dark leading edge to the wing. I looked on web a bit more and couldn't find any that looked like that but then came across some photos of mounted specimens of several species including our common Bee-fly, and several of them show a fork. Mystery sort of solved but only sort of. More investigation required.
Bee Fly talks with forked tongue |
Be Fly is one species that still eludes me, Keith. Perhaps they`re not that common in South Yorks.
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