Tag Archives: Mating insects

Natural History

Mating Bee-Flies: It’s Spring!

Today I learnt that Bee-Flies can fly while mating tail-to-tail…

Several “firsts of the year” today: a Blackcap sang in the reserve; the first Speckled Wood butterfly, closely followed by a pair of males fighting in a clearing; the first Comma on the Picnic Meadow; and these splendid Bee-Flies with their handsomely pictured wings, demonstrating that they may be short, round, and furry, but they can fly while coupled tail-to-tail, not as elegantly as a wheel of Dragonflies maybe, but unquestionably able to get airborne, one of the two flying (of course) backwards.

Netty building a habitat woodpile, the logs packed with clippings to keep it moist and full of insect life

After building a habitat woodpile, we spent the day scything the meadow and raking up the clippings to deplete the mineral status little by little. It seems to be working nicely, as the range of insects and flowers is plainly increasing. Netty found some Vetch and Mouse-Ear; and there are attractive Red-Tailed Bumblebees to join the Buff-Tails and White-Tails that are emerging from their winter lairs.

The air was full of birdsong from Chiffchaffs, Blackbirds, Great Tits, Blue Tits, Goldfinches, Robins, Dunnocks and the newly-arrived Blackcap. A Sparrowhawk circled overhead. The cherries are all in flower. Spring has sprung.

Natural History

Pondlife and Mating Insects after Spring Rain

Leech and Hawker Dragonfly exuviae

Since our Hawker Dragonflies (Migrant and Southern Hawkers) fly later in the year, we think this exuviae (cast skin) has survived the winter. It may have been hooked on to a plant just above the waterline, and only fallen into the pond with recent disturbance.

Mating Sawflies on Nettle

Sawflies look quite wasplike in their black and yellow, but have no narrow “waist” at the base of the abdomen – they’re pretty much the same width all the way along. All the waisted Hymenoptera evolved from Sawflies.

Mating Bugs on Nettle

Roman Snail crawling in open after rain

We’ve now seen three Roman Snails in different parts of the reserve, after none in the past few years, so either the weather has brought them out, or more likely someone released their pet snails when they no longer wanted them. As the name suggests, the species has been in Britain since the Romans, who introduced them for food. We’re happy to see this handsome species here, but all the same it does constitute an introduction to a nature reserve…