A nice, sunny day, +14° C. Been to Sheet’s Heath.
Wanted to collect some mushrooms — and did, but the best ones have been already collected by someone 😦
Spiked Shieldbug (Picromerus bidens), a predatory species:
A Southern Hawker (Aeshna cyanea):
A warm, mostly sunny day, +21° C.
Took a walk near Krasnogorsk.
Crazy butterflies this year! A totally out-of-flight-period Tufted Marbled Skipper (Carcharodus flocciferus):
A really smart-looking Didea alneti hoverfly:
Right, Moscow region it is.
After Anapa, where everyone is wearing t-shirts even after dark, Moscow region with +8° C night temperature was… quite refreshing.
It’s not that bad during the day, of course: about +17° C and sunny.
Insects are still there, hanging around the relatively few nectar sources still available.
It was mostly flies today. This is some phasiine tachinid I still need to ID:
Upd: Eliozeta helluo, ID by Theo Zeegers (diptera.info):
Ectophasia crassipennis was still numerous — and, given the temperature, more willing to pose:
Now, that I am in Moscow region again, I’d like to make a concluding post about the time I’ve spent in Anapa, Krasnodar region in the NW Caucasus. There was little to do for an entomologist in the city by day (it’s all buildings and private gardens mostly) — but having an open balcony in the flat I’ve rented allowed me to run an MV lamp on, weather permitting, most nights.
Before getting into moths I’d like to mention some non-lepidopterous stuff that turned up at the lamp.
Western Conifer Seed Bug (Leptoglossus occidentalis), an American species which is invasive in Southern Russia:
A predatory Pinthaeus sanguinipes shieldbug. It’s usually pretty rare, but I’ve been lucky with it this year, having found a nymph in Krasnogorsk a couple of weeks before:
A warm, sunny day, +25° C. Went to Vityazevo.
Met several Calomera littoralis tiger beetles on the paths:
Quite a few of these Tentyria sp. darkling beetles were crossing my path too. Could be either T. nomas or T. taurica, or both (I kept several specimens to have a look later):
We’ve had a storm over the weekend here, which is over now — so today I went to Lysaya Gora (literally “bald hill”) between the villages of Supsekh and Varvarovka. As a quick summary, I’ll just state that it is the least remote of the places around Anapa I’ve been to — and the most rewarding when insects are concerned! Go figure…
A warm, mostly sunny day, +26° C.
Only got one of these bush-crickets, I guess it is Parapholidoptera noxia:
Tylopsis lilifolia bush-crickets were common. Female:
