Sorry Folks, after the information kindly supplied to me by 'Biosphere' and 'Eddie the Bugman' on my previous photo (Araneus Diadematus (a.k.a. Rocky) I just had to crop it to get a closer look at this boy's Palps.

And there they are!

Absolutely fascinating.

Girls you don't know how lucky you are!

These were a real nightmare to photograph, this is the Rhododendron Leafhopper, these are actually an American species where it is known as the Scarlet and Green Leafhopper, it is thought they were introduced to Europe in the early 1900's. This species feeds on the sap of the Rhododendron Bush and it is one of the few insects that feeds on this plant.

These are very active and have the habit of flying away at the slightest disturbance, but I did find that once they start feeding then they are a bit more approachable. I managed a 5 image stack at F/11, ISO 400 and a 1/160 shutter speed. They really are a gorgeous splash of colour :o)

If ever a Collembola could be described as ghost like, then Sminthurides aquaticus is definitely a candidate. The females of the species grow to about 1mm in length and are mainly white in colour with a few subtle hues of blue and orange.

So here we have 3 portraits of a female, these were taken with the MP-E at x5 on 108mm of extension tubes, that's x3 36mm tubes. I used an F/5.6 aperture and a diffuser on my 430 EXII flash. If you have a garden pond then chances are you have a population of these, look along the edges of the pond for white specks, you should be able to see these with your eyes, but a magnifying glass helps a lot.

Anyway, HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO YOU ALL :o)

VIEW LARGE and EXTRA IMAGES IN COMMENTS

Well it is certainly that time of the year, with the leaves falling so quickly, as well as the temperatures falling and increased precipitation, there has been an explosion of Dicyrtomina species, virtually every leaf I picked up had a few of these on the underside. This is a male Dicyrtomina saundersi at about 1.5-2mm, the cross markings on the posterior and the colour change in the antennae help ID this species :o)

This is a 16 image handheld focus stack at F/5.6 using my MP-E at x5 magnification. These guys are great stacking subjects, it may take a while, but they will often stop dead in their tracks, also try a stack as quickly as you can after turning over a leaf. One thing that helps is getting the flash power down as low as possible, this often means increasing the ISO, however, I rarely go above 400, reducing the shutter speed to 1/125 helps and using a wide aperture also helps (A wider aperture will give sharper details and will also require more shots in the stack).

VIEW LARGE

This was another Fly I found early one morning, I am really hoping the weather will settle down a bit and allow me to do an early morning macro session.

I've no idea what species of fly this is, I can only guess at some sort of Muscidae, best thing about early morning shoots is when you find your first subject is covered in dew, dew is not always guaranteed and is always an added bonus when it comes to macro work.

IF POSSIBLE VIEW THIS FULL SIZE FOR DEW DROP DETAILS :o)

Sorry I have not been on here much over the past few days, no excuses, I will try and catch up as soon as I can, I have loads of stuff I want to upload and have been busy finding more very small Globular Springtails.

VIEW ON BLACK

Pyrrhosoma nymphula balanced on a plant stem, this one I found was very close to the ground, I think it is still in its teneral stage and will be developing stronger coloration over the next few days, the eyes will redden, the two horizontal stripes on each eye will darken and some of the area above the clypeus will yellow, I really hope I can get a stack of a mature adult in the next week or two. This individual was a most amiable subject, they do sometimes stay perfectly still for the camera, although I have noticed if I go above x3 on my MP-E they don't like the invasion of their space so much.

Anyway, a 5 stack image, could have done this in 3 as I was using F/11, this was one of the first stacks I tried, so I started off with a smaller aperture, as I got more confident I used a wider aperture.

Anyway, hope everyone has a great weekend, hoping to get out early one day this weekend :o)

VIEW ON BLACK

Them wild-eyed boys that had been away :o)

Yes the boys are back in town, I had a feeling that today was going to be the day, my first Large Red Damselfly experience of 2014 occurred when this guy flew straight past me and landed bang in the middle of a Spiders web, not a great start to a new life. So I had to rescue him, I placed him on a nearby Daisy and he allowed me to get a few shots after a bit of a clean up operation, I later placed him on a safe out of the way perch.

Anyway, I had a bit of a disaster as an essential bracket screw was missing from my flash bracket, in the end I had to handhold my flash in position, not easy. Then there was the really annoying breeze that added to my frustrations. Eventually I got things under control and this is an 18 image handheld focus stack using an F/7.1 aperture, ISO 400 and a 1/160 shutter speed. Next time I hope to be better prepared, but at least they are back, I also saw another 2 flying around a bit later on.

VIEW LARGE IF YOU CAN :o)

In the same vein as the head-on-a-stick WIP heads, but this one actually stands without a stick!

Fun with the Praetorian guard head, which seems more usable than other ultrabuild heads thus far. It's all solidly connected there!

Maybe one day I'll build a body for this. Some sort of Zoidberg-like alien type perhaps...

Going back a few weeks I was at my new fave Darter site, there is an observation deck going out into a pond and this is my new friend, he kept landing infront of me and looking at me, he definitely was not camera shy, I really love Common Darters, possibly the happiest Dragons going :)

VIEW LARGE :)

Well I went back to Sheffield Botanical Gardens today and found some very interesting Collembola. This one in particular is very interesting, these were the smallest Sminthurinus species I have found to date, they were about 0.5mm-0.6mm, the closest match I can find is Sminthurinus minutus, but I think this is an American species and I can find no British records.

The head has very distinctive orange pigmentation, white eyebrows and a clear band across the middle of the head, the abdomen is black with underlying orange/red (No white spots on any of the individuals) and orange antennae, the ends of the legs look to be orange. Any ideas Frans????

These were found in the hothouse/glasshouse, so there is a chance they are imports. I really struggled photographing these, I could hardly see these and I think I was getting misting on my lens.

***Just been informed that this is likely to be Sminthurinus minutus and is the first European record of this species :o)***

VIEW LARGE

A portrait of the male Calopteryx splendens taken in the early hours of the morning. I was fortunate to find this one a few metres away from the lovely female Calopteryx splendens I photographed on the same morning. This guy was covered in fine dew droplets and I always love the metallic blues of these guys. The flight season of these guys is May to September, but the height of activity is usually around June and July, I must admit that these are getting a bit harder to find now.

I hope eveyone has a wonderful weekend. I did make a discovery today, I was messing about with Windows Movie Editor and realised that I can slow down video, so I have taken a section of my hunting Demoiselle sequence and slowed it down, looks really cool, so may post it later :o)

VIEW ON BLACK

A selection of 3 Sminthurinus species found on a Sunday afternoon, they were all found on fallen leaves on a patch of lawn at the Nottingham University Campus. The first one on the left I think is Sminthurinus aureus f.ochropus, there were lots of these on the fallen leaves. The middle one I'm not 100% on I think its a darker form of Sminthurinus aureus, it just looks a little different to the ones I usually find. The one on the right is a Sminthurinus elegans, these also seem to be common on lawns, I've seen so many of these this year, lots more than last year.

All of the above were roughly the same size at about 0.8mm max.

Thanks to everyone who supported yesterday's Black Day on Flickr, unfortunately I still think Flickr will go ahead with their changes, I just hope they at least try and improve on the Beta format.

Hope everyone has a great week :0)

VIEW LARGE

I was honoured and privileged to finally witness a full Damselfly emergence, possibly one of the most amazing things in the natural world to watch, I've captured most of the process and have got to workout the best way to present it.

For now I thought I'd upload this image, I could look at this for hours, now next one is to watch a Dragonfly emerge :)

One from a while back, I found this Allacma fusca in woodland and happily went about doing a handheld focus stack, this one was 12 images with my MP-E on my 1.4x teleconverter at F/5.6. It was only when I was editing the image that I noticed something on the right hand side of its head, just below the antennae. I think it is likely to be some sort of Mite, I think I can make out legs and a head end. I don't know if it is parasitic by nature or whether it is phoretic, phoretic basically means that it is using the host as a means of transportation to another area, basically hitching a lift.

Extra images in first of comments :o)

Allacma fusca is a large dark brown species of Globular Springtail reaching up to 3.5mm in length, it is widespread and common thoughout the UK, it is often found near the ground surface of moist habitats, I mainly find these on fallen branches, sticks and bark in mixed woodland, sometimes in large numbers, they are generally slow moving and are often completely still :o)

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a great weekend and are bracing themselves for the heavy rain that is forecast tonight :o)

VIEW LARGE

1st of April and no joke I still have not seen a decent sized insect, after 2 long walks this Easter the biggest thing I saw was a small fly, so next best thing and only thing I knew I could find were Collembola(Which are no longer classed as insects, they used to be but now they are in their own class Collembola within the Superclass Hexapoda, the Superclass containing the following classes Collembola, Protura, Diplura, Insecta).

Anyway, this I think is a Stenacidia violacea female, she did not appear to have any subdivisions of her 4th antennal segment. Taken with 72mm of extension tubes on my MP-E at x5, this was under 1mm in length :o)

There is an area of stony ground covered in moss on one of my Melton walks and there is always a good population of these there. It was another cold start today and when photographing these I had to put my gloves on to keep my hands from freezing LOL, don't think the temperature got up higher than 4C today although the sun did make a late appearance. Sorry for my absence, just not been taking any photo's lately.

VIEW ON BLACK

Dicyrtomina saundersi

After Eddie The Bugman's recent Sminthurides nr penicillifer post, I thought I would go and check the beck in the nearby valley for similar species. I didn\'t have any luck, but the light was fading, so I\'ll keep looking and try and get out a bit earlier.

I did find my first Dicyrtomina of the season in the surrounding woodland. This is a common species that will be easy to find in the coming weeks, and I find a similar species under fallen leaves in the back garden.

This one is a young male and looks to be about ready to moult.

Springtails (unlike insects) continue to moult throughout their adult life, but this was quite a small individual so I suspect it still has some growing to do. As they age the patterning will also get darker.

In the comments below are a couple more images showing the abdominal patterning that helps to distinguish between species, and also the raised papilla that shows that this is a male. Unfortunately I can\'t figure out how to add notes in flickr anymore, so I can highlight them.

Single image @ 7x magnification.

Calliphora vomitoria chowing down on some yummy bird pooh. Liked this shot because it's the best one I've done to date that shows its feeding apparatus :)

VIEW LARGE ON BLACK

Finally made it out and used my camera, I found this wonderful Caprainea marginata on a fallen leaf, I find these Collembola fascinating and this species seems very cooperative and will happily stay put and even when they do decide to take a stroll they are fairly slow. It was really nice to photograph one on some greenery, it really adds a welcome splash of colour. It appears that they darken as they mature, this one I think is a fairly mature individual at about 1.4mm in length :o)

At least the weather behaved today, although very gusty at times, I saw my first Ducklings and Goslings today, may just post a few images over the next few days.

Hope everyone has a great week

VIEW ON BLACK

This lovely Commomn Blue Damselfly was ever so excited to meet me yesterday morning, I found him by a stretch of the local canal, quite chuffed as I only have a 10 minute walk to find these, the stretch of the canal had been barriered off for most of the Spring, this was due to some rather inconsiderate Swans nesting on the canal path LOL, they did have some rather lovely cygnets with them yesterday morning, so I guess I can forgive them :o)

Anyone noticed loads of their images dropping off Explore, some strange stuff going on and on Scout images are being duplicated for some reason ?????

Hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful weather, supposed to be better tomorrow, so I'm off Dragon hunting along the Grantham canal between Plungar and Redmile, hoping to see Hairy Dragonflies, Four-spotted Chasers and maybe an Emperor or two, also will get some Variable Damselflies if I'm lucky. Hope everyone has a great Weekend :o)

VIEW ON BLACK

WoooHoooo looks like the cold snap has gone and here comes the SUMMER, I am sure that by the end of the week I will be in Damselfly Nirvana :O)

Anyway, this was a rather ambitious focus stack of a female Salticus scenicus having a light snack, I cannot believe she managed to stay still for this and I did a few other stacks as well. I had to crop this quite a bit as the bottom end of the fly didn't work, but I think this crop looks OK.

I do have another in the pipeline, may upload later this week :o)

Was not online much yesterday, having a few connection difficulties, modern technology !!!!!

VIEW ON BLACK

A rather attractive Sitticus pubescens enjoying the sun, one thing I know is that these guys love the warmth, they seem to prefer the darker bricks on the wall by the Nottingham Canal, perfect camouflage for them and a great hunting territory, they being the ambush masters of the Salticidae world, they seem to just sit and wait for their prey.

This is a two image stack, quite happy that I managed a stack with this species, they do seem to adopt this particular looking down pose, where Salticus scenicus often looks straight ahead when resting.

Also in the comments, the swarm of Bees on the side of our house yesterday, I think they are establishing a nest, much to the annoyance of my Landlord :o)

VIEW ON BLACK

Deuterosminthurus pallipes or possibly bourletiella arvalis(???)

I think I may be pushing the limits of my macro setup with this one. This guy was tiny; I've never noticed them before, but knew exactly what it was as soon as I saw it. Check out Eddie the Bugman's amazing set of these little creatures. These things are so cute!

A female Dicyrtomina saundersi on ice this morning, a 9 image handheld focus stack at x7 magnification using F/5.6, there were lots of these on the underside of fallen leaves today and the frost meant that they were quite still, one thing I did notice was the ice started melting very quickly, almost as soon as you turned the leaf over, so I think an earlier start on a colder day is required. Just a note this one has a frozen droplet on its antennae :O)

Well at least it was a nice day for a change, cold mind, but I'd rather have that than rain and wind anyday :o)

VIEW ON BLACK

An Azure Damselfly, not sure if he was trying to hide or just seeing what on earth was going on. Took this one on a fine Summer day in 2013, a focus stack of 9 images using an F/8 aperture, ISO 125 and a 1/60 shutter speed. This was handheld, used a diffused flash, the background was courtesy of a fabric blue flower supported on a hobby stand.

I just loved the pseudopupil effect on this guy, makes for good eye contact.

In the compound eye of invertebrates such as insects and crustaceans, the pseudopupil appears as a dark spot which moves across the eye as the animal is rotated. This occurs because the ommatidia that one observes "head-on" (along their optical axes) absorb the incident light, while those to one side reflect it. The pseudopupil therefore reveals which ommatidia are aligned with the axis along which the observer is viewing.

I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

VIEW LARGE

As I mentioned yesterday there were other Bees landing on the fence at Wilford Claypit. So I thought I'd upload an image of one. I'm now thinking this is Megachile willughbiella, but I'm really not sure, they were about twice the size of the male Osmia I found.

I also mentioned that focus stacking Bees was tricksy, well this was a 14 image stack at F/10, the resulting PMax image was awful, so I worked with the DMap and edited with single frames, there was a lot of head and body movement. I was amazed by the size of the jaws on this one, I have a head on stack I may upload later.

One thing for sure the food supply for Trypetoptera punctulata is abundant at the moment, this is also known as the Snail-eating Fly, it is one of the Marsh Flies of the family Sciomyzidae, this is the first time I have found this particular species and what a striking fly it is, they move very slowly and deliberately, really love those beautiful mottled wings :o)

What Wiki says:-

Marsh flies are generally slender, yellowish or brownish, about 0.5–1 cm (0.25-0.5 in) long. They have fairly prominent eyes, prominent forward-pointing antennae, and bristles on the hind femora (upper hind leg). The wings are often mottled with various light brown markings according to species.

Marsh flies are common along the edges of ponds and rivers, and in marshy areas. The adults drink dew and nectar. The larvae prey on or become parasites of Gastropoda (slugs and snails). Very little is known about the complete life cycle of these flies.

VIEW ON BLACK

A Cream Spot Ladybird doing what they do best, it's strange but I don't recall seeing these last year and now they are popping up everywhere, excellent little Ladybirds these :)

A portrait of an Allacma fusca, it will be another couple of months before I start seeing these emerging, locally the juveniles start appearing in April. Allacma fusca is one of the largest of the UK Sminthurinae and possibly one of the largest UK Symphypleona, they grow to about 3.5mm in length. Nice view of the PAO-setae in this one.

This was a 15 image handheld focus stack using an F/5 aperture, ISO 200 and a 1/125 shutter speed, using a diffused flash at x7 magnification.

VIEW LARGE

A bit of reflecting on the year, so I'm going back in the archives. This is possibly my favourite find of 2012, the tiny Caprainea marginata, this is a fairly rare species in the UK and I was fortunate to find a colony of them here in Nottingham back in April. It seems this pretty pink species is active for a relatively short period, they seemed to be about for the month of April and after that they virtually vanished. So hopefully in 2013 I will be able to find these guys early on and see how long they are active for. This one was on the underside of a fallen leaf and I captured it as it was climbing over a lump of dirt.

Has anyone had a weird surge in their stats today? I had over 7000 views in a relatively short period of time, usually I average 400-500 in a day.

VIEW ON BLACK

I found this little Neanura muscorum under some rotting bark, I was immediately intrigued by this individual as it appeared to be covered in white specks, it wasn't until I got home that I realised that they were Nematodes (roundworms), I am interested to find out if these are parasites of this Springtail or if it is just that these roundworms are hitching a ride.

There were other Neanura muscorum under the bark, but this was the only one covered with these Nematodes, just thought it made an interesting subject. Neanura muscorum is typically up to 3mm in length :o)

VIEW ON BLACK

Nearly there, Odonata season is nearly upon us, on the BDS site the first Large Red Damselfly of the season has been recorded, it was from an indoor tank, but still good to hear. So I'm hoping to get my first shots in the next month or so :o)

www.british-dragonflies.org.uk/content/latest-sightings

This was a focus stack of an Ischnura elegans from last year, they have such great colours. A 16 image focus stack, ISO 320, F/8 aperture and a 1/160 shutter speed, a diffused flash was used.

Hoping to get out with the camera tomorrow, seems ages since I last used my camera. Happy Easter to everyone :o)

ZOOM IN OR VIEW LARGE

I found a few of these little beauties in local woodland, they are nymph stages of Campyloneura virgula, a common predatory bug of the Miridae family. According to the British Bug Website the males are very rare and has lead to the thinking that the species might be parthenogenetic. I kind of like the go faster stripes on these little guys and they are fast LOL :o)

Really tricky doing macro in woodland, I'm struggling to get enough light for focusing, besides the obvious use of LED torches, can anyone suggest any other ideas to illuminate the situation :o)

VIEW ON BLACK

A rather nice little Sminthurinus species I found on a bit of wood on one of my Collembola hunts. This one lead me a merry dance, it took ages to find with my lens and kept disappearing and reappearing, eventually I managed to keep it in my sight.

I think I have the ID right as Sminthurinus aureus f. ochropus, but I have noticed that on the Collembola.org website that there is another similar colour form called Sminthurinus aureus var. atrata, I was wondering what would distinguish this form Sminthurinus aureus f. ochropus from Sminthurinus aureus var. atrata?

This one was very active and didn't stop to pose, so I was tracking and snapping the best I could. This was taken at x7 magnification, the main image is cropped, this one was about 0.8mm in length and was just visible, but being dark in colour it was very easy to loose track of it against a background of a similar colour.

VIEW ON BLACK

(www.janimaki.net)

OK possibly the last one in the series for the Azure Damselfly on a blue background, hopefully I will be photographing new ones in the near future, seems a long wait still and it still hasn't warmed up that much here in the UK.

This was a handheld focus stack of just 6 images, ISO 125, F/8 aperture and a 1/60 shutter speed, a diffused flash was used.

Really happy to get another Ladybird image used on the BBC - Earth website:-

www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150316-emerging-ladybirds-eat-a...

Happy St Patrick's Day to everyone :o)

******* VIEW LARGE OR ZOOM IN ********

HFF to everybody, I've been meaning to do another Fence Friday and this is my first of 2012, taken on one of those wonderful bright and frosty mornings we had earlier this week. The sun was shining onto this fence by the roadside and I knew the frost and water on the leaves of the Brambles on the other side of the fence would supply some nice bokeh in the sunlight.

Hope everybody has a wonderful weekend, just thought I'd say that again LOL :o)

VIEW ON BLACK

A Common Blue Damselfly (No surprises there) on one of my early morning photo walks, this one is nearly fully matured, there is some evidence of it's teneral colouration. I liked the look on this beauties face :)

Hope you all have a wonderful week :)

Revisiting a few unused stacks on the run up to Christmas, I've not been out with the camera much lately, been blowing a gale all day here in Notts.

This was a very curious Common Darter at Wilford Claypit here in Nottingham. This one had perched on the edge of the wooden barrier that surrounds the observation decking and allowed me to take some close images, I liked the angle of this one.

This to my delight was my other exotic new find from Sheffield Botanical Gardens, I found these guys in exactly the same place as I found the Genus nov.2 sp. nov, initially I was unsure of the differences, I believe the abdominal setae are different, also these have an orange vertical marking between the ocelli patches. This one was on a leaf. you can see the middle rib/vein of the leaf behind this little one :o)

So as with the others, this species seems to like the beds of Ericas and were found on fallen leaves in and around the Ericas. It could be that when the Botanical Gardens were set up that these guys were introduced on certain imported indoor plants and over the years they have migrated outdoors and adapted to live on and around other plants or maybe they were introduced on imported outdoor plants, it is thought this species is another foreign import :o)

I have to say that this is one of the prettiest Collembola I have found to date. There is another species called Katianna nr. australis which is unique to the Sheffield Botanical Gardens, I will have to try and find this species next time I visit :o)

Hope you all have a great weekend and stay warm, looks like another cold one :o(

VIEW ON BLACK

As the temperatures rose this afternoon, then so did the passion, it was all happening on my parents garden refuse bin, I found quite a few of these Deuterosminthurus pallipes doing their courtship dance on the top of the bin, I imagine that they had been swept up with the garden waste and had escaped to the top of the bin. In the main image you can see the purple female courting with the yellow male, in this species the male and female can be either yellow or purple and sometimes there are a few slight colour variations, it was nice to photograph them on another coloured surface.

Also I'm still awake, went back to the park this afternoon, but did not photograph much as the sun had brought people out in their droves, it was too noisy for me, definitely prefer it at 4am LOL :o)

VIEW ON BLACK

I was really pleased to finally witness one of the wonders of the macro world, this is my first capture of the Deuterosminthurus pallipes courtship dance, these little guys were on top of my favourite white bench at Wollaton Park (The only white bench as well).

On the left is a female and she is courting with a smaller male on the right, also there is another male trying to butt in on the action. It really was a mad scene to watch, they were everywhere, there were yellow ones, purple ones and these reddish ones, I have included an extra image in the comments, but I have loads, really tricky to photograph these, a DOF nightmare, they are fast and the top of the bench is curved, also I always hate photographing stuff on a gloss white background. I think I will try some video footage next time, I will set up a tripod over the bench and see if I can get any decent footage, it is great to watch.

Sorry not been on Flickr much, still a poor internet connection and this heat is getting a bit much :o)

Taken with the MP-E at x5, the female was just under 1mm at a guess.

VIEW ON BLACK

Had a bit of a Damsel day today, they were everywhere at Wollaton Park, this chap was on top of an exuviae, the background supplied by Mastercard :)

Really pleased to find this new one, I've only ever found one species of Tortoise Beetle before, so to find this almost golden beauty was a real bonus. Cassida flaveola or the Pale Tortoise Beetle is associated with host plants from the Caryophyllaceae family, but this one was found on the wire mesh that holds the rocks in place around part of the lake at Wollaton Park, thought it made an interesting setting. This is a 9 image focus stack at F/8. I was actually looking for signs of Damselfly emergence, but not a thing to be found, I really hope I don't have to wait until the middle of May like last year.

VIEW ON BLACK

No I'm not going to do the lyrics to the song from the "Hans Christian Andersen" film, not seen that film since I was a kid, sorry. I found this little fella on a wooden fence today, I'm not sure on the species, but it is probably one of the Geometer Moth caterpillars, so I guess that narrows things down a bit.

This is what Wiki says :-

The name "Geometridae" ultimately derives from Latin geometra from Greek γεωμέτρης ("geometer, earth-measurer"). This refers to the means of locomotion of the larvae or caterpillars, which lack the prolegs of other Lepidopteran caterpillars in the middle portion of the body, with only two or three pairs at each end. Equipped with appendages at both ends of the body, a caterpillar will clasp with its front legs and draw up the hind end, then clasp with the hind end (prolegs) and reach out for a new front attachment - creating the impression that it is measuring its journey. The caterpillars are accordingly called loopers, spanworms, or inchworms after their characteristic looping gait. The cabbage looper is not an inchworm, but a caterpillar of a different family. In many species of geometer moths, the inchworms are about 25 mm (1.0 in) long. They tend to be green, grey, or brownish and hide from predators by fading into the background or resembling twigs. Many inchworms, when disturbed, stand erect and motionless on the prolegs, increasing the resemblance. Some have humps or filaments. They are seldom hairy or gregarious and are generally smooth. Typically they eat leaves. However, some eat lichen, flowers or pollen. Some, such as the Hawaiian species of the genus Eupithecia, are even carnivorous. Certain destructive inchworms are called cankerworms.

Anyway, thought it was something interesting, it was a tricky one as every time I got close it would stop and wave its head about in the air, hope everyone has a great weekend, watching "Avengers Assemble" again for the 12th time, HULK SMASH !!!!!!!!! LOL :o)

If you really really want to hear the song :o)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXi3bjKowJU

But don't blame me if you get the song stuck in your head LOL :o)

A MUST TO VIEW ON BLACK

Early morning Lestes sponsa(female), these are tricky to get face on due to the way they rest, they usually rest on reeds, grasses etc and tend to rest as shown in the image above, so I tried to get the best angle I could and I used some green foam to fill in as a background.

Thought I'd have a go at Mondays Bench theme, not done this before, it was just when I was out for a walk on Sunday and I thought it would be something different to try.

This was taken just as it was getting dark and I saw an opportunity to get some nice bokeh lights in the background, the main building in the background is the County Hall in West Bridgford.

All that remains to be said is HBM everybody :)

Well this was a turn up for the books, this little beauty landed next to me and was not at all bothered when I went to take this shot, thought this was an interesting angle for a shot :)

Uncropped image

A Salticus scenicus ( ♀ ) hunting on the pink walls by the side of the Nottingham Canal. Not sure why the walls are painted pink in patches, probably to cover up the graffiti. Anyway, this was a last ditch attempt to get some macro done after my Monday walk, you can always find these on this wall.

This was a single frame image shot at F/10 using a diffused flash, I was going to try for a stack, but this little lady had other ideas. I quite liked the sideways glance, she was probably looking at my hand here LOL oOOo

It's that time of year when I'm seeing the first images of Damselflies appearing on Flickr, but I'm still waiting to see my first of the year. Well I've got the day off on Friday and I'm hoping that will be the day to find them.

This image was an Ischnura elegans from last year. A focus stack of 17 images, ISO 320, aperture F/7.1 and a 1/160 shutter speed with a diffused flash. I think this guy was a very mature individual judging by his somewhat worn mouth parts :o)

VIEW LARGE OR ZOOOOOMMM

A selection of images of Sminthurinus elegans f. ornata and Sminthurinus elegans. If there is a central dorsal lateral line it is elegans, if this dorsal lateral line is missing then it is elegans f. ornata.

These were taken a while back, have not been out with the camera for a number of days, just hoping for a decent spell. Will the weather ever settle in this country :o(

Thought I'd share my current Collembola list, there are one or 2 possibles and a few unidentified species, I have also listed a few colour forms here as well, also there are some very common species I see that I've yet to photograph, so theoretically I could increase the list quite easily :o)

PODUROMORPHA

Hypogastrura sp 1(unid)

Hypogastrura sp 2(unid)

Podura aquatica

Ceratophysella denticulata

Brachystomella parvula

Monobella grassei

Neanura muscorum

Protaphorura armata

Kalaphorura burmeisteri

ENTOMOBRYOMORPHA

Hemisotoma thermophila

Vertagopus arboreus

Isotoma viridis

Entomobrya nicoleti

Entomobrya albocincta

Entomobrya nivalis

Entomobrya intermedia

Tomocerus minor

Pogonognathellus longicornis

Orchesella cincta

Orchesella villosa

Lepidocyrtus curvicollis

NEELIPLEONA

Megalothorax minimus

Neelus murinus

SYMPHYPLEONA

Bourletiella hortensis

Bourletiella arvalis

Deuterosminthurus bicinctus

Deuterosminthurus bicinctus var. puncteola

Deuterosminthurus pallipes

Deuterosminthurus pallipes f. repanda

Heterosminthurus insignis

Allacma fusca

Caprainea marginata

Sminthurus viridis

Katiannidae. Genus nov. species nov.

Sminthurinus igniceps

Sminthurinus aureus

Sminthurinus aureus f. ochropus

Sminthurinus reticulatus

Sminthurinus niger

Sminthurinus elegans

Sminthurinus elegans f. ornata

Dicyrtomina saundersi

Dicyrtomina ornata

Dicyrtomina minuta

Dicyrtoma fusca

Calvatomina rufescens

Calvatomina nr superba

Ptenothrix atra (possible)

Sminthurides malmgreni

Sminthurides aquaticus

Sminthurides schoetti

Sminthurides schoetti var. ornata

Sminthurides signatus

Stenacidia violacea

Sphaeridia pumilis