abugblog.blogspot.com
BugBlog: Awesome bee flies
http://abugblog.blogspot.com/2015/04/awesome-bee-flies.html
Thursday, 16 April 2015. Bee flies, Bombylius major. Have emerged in the warm weather and I have come across them in several places. Bee flies are early spring fliers, the peak of adult activity is in April and May. They are found throughout the UK, where this species seems to be expanding north. Thee are some cool facts about them. A male at rest. Bee flies are parasitoids of several species of ground-nesting solitary bees, including Andrena. Female loading her sand-brush. Look into their eyes. One of t...
abugblog.blogspot.com
BugBlog: Garden Centre Spider (II)
http://abugblog.blogspot.com/2015/02/garden-centre-spider-ii.html
Monday, 16 February 2015. Garden Centre Spider (II). Another visit to the garden centre. I spend much of it looking up most, in search for the Garden Centre Spider, Uloborus plumipes. I must have been a funny sight. My efforts are rewarded quickly. First, and most obvious I spot the webs, stretched across the plumbing by the glasshouse roof. They are laid almost horizontally and is an orb web. This one had a stabilimentum, a decoration in the centre of the web, in this case a linear one. You don't have t...