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Mark McCaughrean
@markmccaughrean@mastodon.social
1 settimana fa

It's mid-August & one of the garden's big beasts has returned.

This is a mediterranean katydid or southern sickle bush cricket (Phaneroptera nana; 🇩🇪 Vierpunktige Sichelschrecke).

Lacking a sickle-shaped ovipositor, it's a male & will need its camouflage to survive, as it's also lacking one of its hind legs.

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A large katydid seen side on. It is almost exactly the same shade of mid-green as the leaf it is standing on, with a sprinkling of added black dots on the legs and lower abdomen. The wings are covered in light green veins with darker patches between, and there is a black, yellow, and pink region around the top and front of the wings. The large compound eyes are green on the bottom third, pink-brown in the top two thirds, with a black dot in the middle. The legs are mostly green too, with some pinkish patches.

#photography #macrophotography #bugoftheday #heidelberg #insectsofmastodon #backgardenentomology

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Mark McCaughrean
5 giorni fa

And a rather more unusual garden beast, if surprisingly common now in Europe.

These are Mexican grass-carrying wasps (Isodontia mexicana; 🇩🇪 Stahlblauer Grillenjäger), badly photographed as they were dashing around at high speed.

It's thought they arrived in France between 1940 & 1960 in US military supplies.

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📷️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️
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A wasp seen side on on some yellow flowers. The wasp is almost completely black, with a hint of metallic blue, and has fine light hairs over its head and thorax. The latter is connected to the abdomen via a thin black waist. The wings are long and thin, and a mix of clear brown and metallic purple. Two of the wasps seen on the same yellow flowers. One is seen side on, facing down, and is in focus, while the other is seen from above and is somewhat out of focus as it's closer to the camera. One of the wasps seen in profile again, pointing upwards from the end of the flower stem. The hairy head and thorax are clear, as are the many spines on the black legs.
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