Had a morning visit to the BBOWT's Warburg Reserve - managed to fit in a wee bit of pond dipping resulting in 1 Palmate Newt amongst 10 Smooth Newts. Several Odonata remained unID'd...
Arrriving home, found a 7-spot Ladybird with this parasitic wasp larva on its back + rear. An hour later and the parasite had spun his (or her) little cocoon underneath the ladybird (I'll take another snap tomorrow) and was about to begin the process of transforming in to a wee wasp.
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| Parasitised (Dinocampus coccinellae) 7-spot Ladybird |
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| Palmate Newt (with filament end to tail + palmations) |
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| Odonata spp |
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| Odonata spp - Broad-bodied Chaser perhaps? |
3 comments:
NOT BB Chaser. These are Aeshnid larvae, which will become large Hawker dragonflies. For me to ID them, you need good quality pics of head (dorsal and ventral) and dorsal detail of latter half of Abdomen. If you have such, post them on blog (with full grid ref of pond site needed for the new atlas) and I will let you know - but no guarantees!
Ian Smith
Dear Ian
Many thanks for the comment. I'll have a go at cropping some close-ups from my existing images - though I suspect that I probably wont have enough to get an ID.
Do you usually take your pictures of larva in the water?
Feel like another trip to a bookshop is required to help with the ID... oh, so much to learn.
Kind regards
Ross
Ross,
It is easiest to ID the exuviae (larval skin)left when the dragon emerges. But well lit pics in clean water (only just submerged) of the dorsal view can help. The relative proportions of the labium (pincer holding plate)is often the real clincher, along with the other views.
Ian
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