wildlife

[ArnoldT]

I  think a green lynx spider

[Leucogenes]

Very nice Spider... Arnold.👍

A tiny beetle whose interesting surface structure only becomes visible when enlarged...  Unfortunately, I have no idea what the name of this "fellow" is...🤔

[Graham Catlow]

Very nice Spider... Arnold.👍

A tiny beetle whose interesting surface structure only becomes visible when enlarged...  Unfortunately, I have no idea what the name of this "fellow" is...🤔

That’s a vine weevil  Otiorhynchus sulcatus.
Not something I like to see in my garden especially around pot plants. The grubs eat the plant roots.

[Leucogenes]

That’s a vine weevil  Otiorhynchus sulcatus.
Not something I like to see in my garden especially around pot plants. The grubs eat the plant roots.

You're absolutely right...  an uninvited guest in most gardens.  I first saw him in my garden today...  not a mass plague.  Since I am a completely organic gardener, I will refrain from fighting it... in most cases something like this is regulated naturally here... the small creatures usually win anyway...😉

[Maggi Young]

Vine  weevils- and their  grubs- are  a  real menace - and , I regret to say, ALL are  female. 

[Leucogenes]

I will remain vigilant.  But I'm afraid countermeasures here will be relatively ineffective.  My garden is surrounded by absolute wilderness.  If I kill one beetle, ten will come to its funeral...;-)

[Steve Garvie]

If the grubs establish in valuable plant beds there are parasitic nematodes that you can buy -all organic ........but not cheap.

[Maggi Young]

Found  this  being shared elsewhere - I don't  know the  plant  or the  type  of  bird  which has  made  this  super  nest ...   
https://twitter.com/i/status/1277859147417968640

 Adding a  screengrab in case the  video doesn't  show for  you ... the bird has  made  a  sling  of  a  leaf and  built  the  nest  in it

[Hoy]

From nice birds to not so nice goat moth (Cossus cossus). I have often found the caterpillars when they look for a place to pupate. The adult moths are rarely seen.

The other day I found 3 different empty pupae cases and one imago that had just eclosed and was pumping up its wings with blood.

[admin]

One from March 2020 just before the lockdown. This bird was taking no prisoners. We fled.

[Knud]

That's a very impressive picture, and bird! I can see why you fled.

What do you do if your snout is too short? This bunble bee knew, as did all its friends, and every single flower on on the five stalks of this digitalis had the tell-tale little hole at the back, visible as little dark spots on some of the flowers in the picture. I wonder if they re-use the holes, some of the flowers had been cut almost right around the circumference.

Does anyone know what this Digitalis is?

[ArnoldT]

Nursery web spider, missing on of the eight legs.

[Lesley Cox]

The elephant hawkmoths, both species, are truly magnificent and I would feel greatly privileged to see either or both. I don't believe we have any hawkmoths in NZ at all (Anthony Darby would be able to tell me if he happened to see this.) I did see several on tubbed lantana plants at Melk Abbey in Austria in 2016 when travelling with my sister. I took some short video clips but not good results as the moths were so mobile and never alighted for more than a fraction of a second at a time. I worked out what kind of hawkmoth they were but I've forgotten now. Haven't forgotten their beautiful flitting dances around the lantanas though.

[Hoy]

Seven blues on a Saxifraga aizoides.

[Leucogenes]

Seven blues on a Saxifraga aizoides.

(Attachment Link)

Gorgeous scenery...Hoy. I love the blue ones too. Especially beautiful is the underside of the species I have here...