Last Summer's Bugs

Forest Bug, Pentatoma rufipes.  In my garden light trap in Hayes on 24 July 2014.

More insects from my moth trap last summer.  These are true bugs, creatures in the order Hempitera with sucking mouthparts.  There are lots of these plant suckers around, including aphids, though I don't have any shots of those.

Probably the most common in my garden were the Hawthorn Shield Bugs, so common that I didn;t photograph any!  But they are very like this Forest Bug except for coloration.  This group are sometimes known as stink bugs because they can leave a nasty smell on your skin, though they are always kind to me.

Dryophilocoris flavoquadrimaculatus.  In my garden light trap in Hayes on 21 May 2014.

There are lots of rather similar Mirid bugs around.  The complicated second part of this one's name just means "four yellow marks." 

Mirid bug, Phytocoris longipennis.  In my garden light trap in Hayes on 15 July 2014.

Another Mirid bug, this one with more subtle colouring, but very similar in overall shape and patterning.

Leafhopper.  In my garden light trap in Hayes on 14 July 2014.

Still a bug, but from a different family, this leafhopper is one of many similar species.

Last Summer's Beetles

Water beetle, Ilybius ater .  In my garden light trap in Hayes on 15 July 2014.

Some beetles from my moth trap last year.  I get quite a few water beetles.  I wonder if they think the light is the moon reflecting from water? 

Whirligig Beetle, Gyrinus substriatus.  In my garden light trap in Hayes on 3 July 2014.

There is a tiny pond two gardens down, but I don't think they all come from there.  They turn up in other moth trap too, and I think they fly around more than people tend to think.

Some beetles turn up on the ground near the trap, so I'm not sure the trap has actually brought them in.

Stag Beetle, Lucanus cervus.  Female.  Hayes, 14 June 2014.

This Stag Beetle was crawling around nearby.  It's large for a British beetle; notice the half-centimetre squares it is sitting on.  It has had a hard time and is missing a leg and an antenna.  There is some spider web sticking to it.  Why do big beetles have such a problem with web?  Look at this ...

Lesser Stag Beetle, Dorcus parallelopipedus.  Hayes, 14 June 2014.

This Lesser Stag Beetle was in the garden on the same day, and it is completely tangled up.  (June is a great month for insects.)  I was excited to find both these species, but sad at their condition!

Ground Beetle, Dromius species.  In my garden light trap in Hayes on 21 May 2014.

I also see a few ground beetles in the trap, and this one stood still to be photographed.  Beetles are many and varied, and I only see a tiny fraction of the available types in the light trap.

Last Summer's Flies

Fly, Phaonia species.  In my garden light trap in Hayes on 14 June 2014.

 There's not much happening outside at the moment, unless you are keen on lichens, and I know very little about them.  So here are some of the creatures that came to my garden moth trap last summer.

Starting with a few flies.  Flies are quite a varied group, and I only photograph a few of them.  I usually ignore bluebottles, greenbottles and house flies.  Also, I don't seem to have any dung-flies from last year, and they are quite common and rather pretty.  But this one, a Phaonia, caught my eye.

Fly, Xanthempis concolor.  In my garden light trap in Hayes on 18 May 2014.

As did this small-headed creature, Xanthempis concolor.  I can't always get good photos of these small insects.  They are a lot more mobile than moths when disturbed so I have to take them where they stand, often oddly positioned or (like this one) partly hidden from an otherwise good viewpoint. Wing shape and veins, antennae, body shape and markings can all be important.

I usually have to rely on others to identify them, so I try to get as much visual information as possible.

Fly, Dilophus species.  Fever Fly.  In my garden light trap in Hayes on 25 October 2014.

I can recognise a few specific types.  That shiny black appearance and triangular, ridged body shape on this one made me think this was a Bibio, or close relation, and it turned out that it was.  Dilophus are in the family Bibionidae.

Picture-winged Fly, Anomoia purmunda.  In my garden light trap in Hayes on 30 July 2014.

And this I can place in a large group called Picture-winged Flies, belonging to the superfamily Tephritoidea.  I always try to photograph these because, obviously, they have pretty wings!  And can usually be identified by them.  This one is Anomoia purmunda.

I can place a lot of the hoverflies, too, but they don't tend to come to the trap and I have lots of photos of them elsewhere in my blog.

Snake-legged Giant

Another new coin!  This one, rather crude in execution, shows an odd event.  The goddess Athena is fighting a creature with snakes for legs.

This is always described as a "snake-legged giant."  That is rather odd, given that the creature is about half as tall as the goddess, and Athena was usually shown as being around the same height as a man.

But there is a misunderstanding involved.  "Giant" here comes from the word "Γιγαντεσ" or Gigantes, the name of a group of earth-born creatures, offspring of Gaia, who were originally not supposed to be oversized or monstrous at all. In myth, they got involved in a fight with the gods, the so-called Gigantomachy. 

It was only in later depictions that they acquired snake legs and sometimes large size.

Perhaps this "giant" is small because there is limited room on the coin.  The legend has been squeezed in, and had to be finished off by cramming the last few letters into the space behind Athena, and even then it has been abbreviated.  This reverse legend reads "CEΛEVKEΩN KAΛVKAΔ" - Seleukewn Kalukad - which means that the coin comes from Seleukeia ad Kalykadnon in Silicia.

We know this is Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, because she is wearing her typical dress and helmet and carrying her shield with the head of the gorgon Medusa mounted on it (the Aegis).  The spear-thrusting pose is a commonly shown stance.