Lymantria dispar, the gypsy moth. Don’t forget to swipe and take a closer look to its huge antennae. Male gypsy moths sport huge, feathery antennae — and for good reason: they can detect the scent of females from kilometers away. These antennae are high-performance sensors… and

Another Extra Special find this week around 560 Million year old Bradgate Park Sliding Stone Rocks, Wonderful Thorn Lichen Cladonia uncialis subsp. biuncialis. Purple Brown Thorn tips, Hollow stems often break. Uncommon, Loves growing amongst Broom Fork Moss @BLSlichens #lichen

There is no such thing as a dead tree 🪾✨ A standing dead tree is known as a snag and they quickly become stand alone vertical worlds filled with life 🪶🪲 Woodpeckers, new arrivals in Ireland, carve out holes that later shelter owls, bats & tits🦉🪚 Beetles, moths & other

Nipplewort growing in a front garden planter, Tunbridge Wells #wildflowerhour

Large patch of Yarrow still in flower in Dunorlan Park #wildflowerhour

Also in Calverley Grounds today the hoverfly Eupeodes luniger feeding at Mahonia - a useful plant for winter-active pollinators.

Good to see a butterfly out today. Red Admiral in a sheltered corner of Calverley Grounds. These don't properly hibernate but pop out of shelter in mild spells throughout the winter.

The Roman Snail (see last repost) has centre stage in this plate from the Oxford Book of Invertebrates (1971)

The mesmerising whorl of a Roman snail🐌 These vast snails were introduced by the Romans. I regularly find them in Wilcote #Oxfordshire & like to think that - over the intervening centuries - this colony has travelled here from North Leigh Roman Villa a mile or two away!🐌

I see a lot of these on Scilly. The males do lekking (mate-searching) flights along hedgerows & around flowers of white umbellifers.

Moths come in all shapes and sizes and the unusual-looking Common Plume (Emmelina monodactyla) is a perfect example 🤩 They can often be found resting, with wings tightly rolled, on fence posts, walls, and even indoors. 📷: Heath McDonald #MothMonday #MothsMatter

#waspaday Not one not two but three wasps for a Monday - a female & two male forms of Ctenichneumon panzeri - a species found in wonderful abundance on wild carrot near Grafton Wood, Worcs in August. There must've been plenty of noctuid moth hosts too. 💚🍃 #waspsmatter

I was photographing this patch of small stagshorn fungi (Calocera cornea) on a dead stem of gorse (Ulex europaeus) on the Findhorn Hinterland a few days ago when I noticed something moving - it was a tiny larva that was perfectly camouflaged amongst the fungal fruiting bodies!

A decent trap for the time of year, 7:5 with Rusty-dot Pearl being the most unexpected of the lot. 2 December Moths & Mottled Umber were the best of the rest; no Winter Moth surprisingly. @pmandrews1973 @BCWarwickshire

There were four queen Buff-tailed Bumblebees and two workers visiting Mahonia in Dunorlan Park today

When viewed from above, the purplepore bracket fungus (Trichaptum abietinum) looks rather plain, but from below its purple colour is quite impressive. This specimen was on an old dead branch of a Scots pine on the Findhorn Hinterland today, & there was a fungus gnat on it.

This beauty (an expert friend, Andrea Colla, tells me) is Helops rossii found in 🇮🇹, 🇦🇹 & the Balkans. Not a ground-beetle (Carabidae) as I thought but a Tenebrionid (darkling beetle). Winters under tree bark. (Its "sleeping partners" are Heteropteran belonging to the Lygaeidae.)

Locust Blowfly (there were three of these), dronefly Eristalis tenax, & foraging worker ant Formica fusca all visiting flowers of Fatsia in Calverley Grounds today

Winter-active hoverfly Meliscaeva auricollis sunning itself on a fence post in Calverley Grounds today

Foraging worker (note full pollen-baskets) & queen of Buff-tailed Bumblebee in Calverley Grounds today