The Kiss Of Death

After it had stopped raining, Jazzy dog and I went macro togging down the field while the soup was cooking. I was on the lookout for droplet bugs and wasn’t disappointed. Chris Packham is right, ivy is such a valuable plant for insects, I can always find some sort of mini beast on it. I got a wasp bedecked in drops, painstakingly trying to rid itself of them. Amazing how hairy wasps are seen up close. Plenty of various flies were enjoying the ivy too.

I fished out a beetle that was frantically swimming in bug soup in a flooded container. I didn’t notice until I looked at the pic on screen that globular springtails were sitting on the floating insect bodies.

The sun came out and I was able to dispense with flash as I captured this golden dung fly, Scathophaga stercoraria. It wasn’t until I got in close that I noticed it was eating another fly. I thought that they ate dung. Their larvae live on it, adults only consume it rarely. The main diet of dung flies is insects and nectar and occasionally their own species. Mine is a male, identified by the golden fur on his front legs.

As darkness fell I was ready to capture any fireworks let off locally. I'm glad that some have remembered the fifth of November. I got some decent shots hand-held but have decided to stick with my dung fly. :)