Monday 13 April 2020

Lockdown Day 21 - Close up Cranefly

One of many things I enjoy doing is taking close up photos of insects. This does require some patience and the insects are not always that cooperative!

On one cycle ride around this time last year I had stopped briefly for some reason and noticed this Cranefly in the grass verge.

This is - to my knowledge - the cranefly Tipula vernalis . The larvae are called Leatherjackets and eat roots and the adults feed on nectar.

The thing that really struck me about this one was the iridescence on the wings and indeed the detail as you get with any close up view of an insect.



One thing I do need to get around to is putting my sightings of various plants, animals, birds and insects on the National Biodiversity Network (NBN) Atlas. Looking for this particular species gives a previous record back in 2002 for one not far from where I saw this one.
https://records.nbnatlas.org/occurrences/219ca574-a55b-4db1-aee4-8d4ccf07f606






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