More Creatures from High Elms

Scorpion Fly, Panorpa species.  Male.  High Elms Country Park, 26 May 2014.

Some more creatures from the grass and hedges at High Elms.  This Scorpion Fly gets its common name from the male reproductive organ, which is curved forward over its back rather like a scorpion's sting; but it can't sting and is completely harmless.

Scorpion Fly, Panorpa species.  Female.  High Elms Country Park, 25 May 2014.

 Here's a female, and you can see that the tail is very different.  They don't bite people with those long mouthparts either, though they will scavenge weak or dead insects.  They can be spotted flitting among the leaves of brambles and nettles in hedgerows.

Leafhopper.  Elymana species.  High Elms Country Park, 26 May 2014.

It's hard to make out the features of these leafhoppers until you get very close.  They are bugs - insects with specialised sucking mouthparts, which they use to extract the sap from the plants they feed on. 

Oedemera nobilis.  Male.  High Elms Country Park, 25 May 2014.

This bright green beetle feeds on pollen.  It's ignoring the dead fly right next to it.  It's sometimes called the large-thighed beetle, or variants, for obvious reasons.  Only the male has those swellings, but it's not hard to identify the females.  Nothing else looks quite like this, with that shiny exoskeleton and the wing cases that don't quite cover the wings.