Welcome

" Welcome to the florafaunauk site , hope you enjoy the pictures and posts giving a detailed insight into the Natural History of our Country throughout the seasons and year "All that the Sun Shines on is beautiful, so long as it is Wild" John Muir "



Monday 28 September 2015

Hope Valley , Derbyshire

Yesterdays Autumnal Weather on the Slopes of Mam Tor Derbyshire looking onward up the Hope Valley


Hope Valley 4906

Monday 14 September 2015

Quiz - Mystery Floristic

A Quick Quiz  Can any one nail this much maligned plant.

With the end of season approaching floristics are becoming harder to find Nettle and Ivy set aside and insects more urgent in their serch for sustainance . Ivy is always a ready source of Red Admiral end of October early November sun permitting

Rather than tell you want the plant is I have put the images up for YOU to identify , suggestions in comments


Quiz 3759



Although to most it seems baron and bereft here is a sequence of creatures feeding or utilising it today I counted at least 36 species in an hour its thick stems can also provide shelter and nesting site for small birds like Wrens to nest and Shelter

Araneus diadematus Orb Web Spider
Metalina mengei/metellina Orb Web Spider
Philaenus spumarius Froghopper
Ichneumon Wasp x2 Species
Apis melifera Honey Bee
Hoverfly Eristalis pertinax
Hoverfly Eristalis renax
Hoverfly Bacchus elongus
Hoverfly Xylota segnis
Diptera x4 Species
Sawfly
Tipula sp TBC
Tipula sp TBC
Sepis fulgens Ensign Fly
Strawberry Snail Trochulus striolatus
The grove snail or brown-lipped snail Cepaea nemoralis Leioburnum rotundum
7 Spot Ladybird
Harlequin Ladybird Harmonia axyridis Forms  Spectabilis succinea conspicua

Two Interesting images where the Garden Spider Araneus diadematus  Observed wrapping a Common Wasp in a s slick silk food parcel. Another included a Dung Fly straddling its prey a small solitary wasp . On deciding to examine the prey , the fly took off carrying this prey in its legs with some ease


Araneus diadematus 3855


Araneus diadematus 3899

Dung Fly  3828

Harvestman - Leioburnum rotundum

Leiburnum rotundum 3815

Baccha elongata Hoverfly Thin waist just visible

Baccha elongata 3799

Syrphus sp

Syrphus 3792


Strawberry Snail - Trochulus striolatus


Strawberry Snail 3824

Sawfly

Sawfly 3798

Philaenus spumarus Froghopper

Philaenus spumarus 3806

Cranefly Tipula (oleraceae) TBC Female

Cranefly 3911

Ichneumon

Ichneumon 3780

Harlequin Ladybird Harmonia axyridis


Harlequin Ladybird 3776



Ladybird 3764

Micro caddid 3 -5 mm

Hydroptila vectis 3766

Wednesday 9 September 2015

Autumn Approaches

“GATHERING LEAVES

Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.
I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.
But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.
I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?
Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.
Next to nothing for use.
But a crop is a crop,
And who's to say where
The harvest shall stop?” 

― Robert Frost

Autumn Leaves 3924

2293 Marbled Beauty Bryophila domestica ABH 73.084

2293 Marbled Beauty Bryophila domestica ABH 73.084 

Query 3489