What is buzzing or flying near you today??

Hmmm .... thanks for all the thoughts.

My initial thought was a Migratory Locust (Locusta migratoria) ... second thought was a Red-winged Grasshopper (Oedipoda germanica) ...

The strange thing is the size of this critter .... as I said at least 8cm and the only thing that comes close to that size in this part of Europe is the adult Praying Mantid (Mantis religiosa).

This poor thing was petrified of the flash and jumped every time (as I had to be lying on the floor peering under a chair so it was a bit dark with Magic Sam at my elbow jumping also at the flash!) .... oh, sorry for my hair attached to him in the second photo ... just noticed. :D

Sorry, don't fancy them as snacks .... chocolate covered or not ..... :euw:

PS Don't have much grass here but does that not count with grasshoppers?

 

One of two Coal tits on a brief visit this afternoon.


This one shows the distinctive white patch on the nape.

 

My Lady the grasshoppers can live almost everywhere on land. They live in forests, grasslands, and deserts. They even live on mountains. But there are two places where they don’t live—the freezing North and South poles, they can be anything from 1.3cm to 15cm in length so yours was a medium one.
Good shots Strongy.

 

This thread made me think again about the Grasshoppers I saw in the States, they 'clicked' as the jumped, thought I'd Google them and found out they are called.... Clicking Grasshoppers:dh::D also called Crackers,
Lol did you ever see any when you lived there ?

 

SOme butterflies I photographed at the butterfly house of Schloss Sayn (more pics to come)

 

More pics coming later All pics "as taken" except for cropping and edging.

 

What beautiful shapes and colours Ivory. Great clear photos.:thmb: 02

 

Great pics everyone :thumb:

Sis, your grasshopper/locust is brilliant, I am green with envy :D, don't think I have seen such a great pic before. Very well caught :thumb:

Re the white and black striped bee, I've still not found out the name of it, nor managed to get a proper shot of one yet, they are just too fast. Still, I have not given up hope.

Keep up the good work

 

Brilliant pictures Ivory look forwards to seeing the rest.
Kedi could this be what your looking for it's a solitary mining bee called lasioglossum calceatum the females are black and white.http://popgen.unimaas.nl/~jlindsey/commanster/Insects/Bees/SpBees/Lasioglossum.calceatum.html

 

That is stunning Ivory :luv::cl-p:

Would be a fantastic entry in one of Marley's new competition suggestions.:thumb:

 

Ivory, they are truly beautiful ... are these regular visitors to your garden? I must look them up tomorrow. Wonderful photographs.

Hi walnut, you may or may not know that Sis is here in Algarve for five weeks (not necessarily with me) and this bee she is mentioning visits my Lantana constantly and here is a picture of it which doesn't look like what you posted .... just looks like some kind of honey bee to me but it's neither in my Med Wildlife Book nor Sis's book she's brought with her ....





As you can see, it had this black and white striped back half, a golden top half and these HUGE eyes.

As Sis said, they don't sit still for a nano second here, like butterflies but I was able to capture this one last week.

 

Hi LoL thanks for the picture, it's got me at the moment there are lots of black and white wasps and bee flies but cann't find a bee it's the golden fleece that is throwing me the eyes and stripes and speed says bee fly the fleece says bee,will keep looking.

 

Thank you for the comments guys and girls, I was stunned by these beauties myself. I need to find a moment to resize the other pics.

I have seen these at the butterfly garden of Schloss Sayn:
http://www.sayn.de/english.html

I had never seen suck lovely butterflies before, it's not just the size and the colours, but some of them also fly in a very different way from ours, a bit like little birds, more than butterflies: and they are reckless, zooming past your face in bands, lol, and will they stay put for a piccie???

 

Here come a few more: