Winter Colours
The green lacewings are quite difficult to tell apart. Fortunately, Chrysoperla carnea still in its subdued winter colours is reasonably easy to spot (much harder later in the year when it’s green like all the others), especially if you get close enough to see the hairy veins on the wings.
How did you spend your day?
Too wet to do much outside today and there were a few domestic tasks that needed attention, so in the end I spent much of the morning counting the pores on the hind leg of a centipede. Heaven!
The Western Yellow Centipede is an interesting beastie, the UK’s longest at up to 70mm.
Western Yellow Centipede, Stigmatogaster subterranea.
Nikon D7200 Tokina 100mm f16 1/250 ISO 100
Supercoiled!
Supercoiling occurs when a structure such as these three elastic bands relieves the helical stress of overtwisting by twisting around itself.
Do you remember when,
Things were really hummin’,
Yeah, let’s twist again,
Twistin’ time is here!
Nikon D7200, EL Nikkor 50mm f2.8N (reversed), f5.6, 1/80 ISO 800, 12 image focus stack.
Field Wood-rush
There seems to be a growing trend on Instagram for hi-key minimalism, including some rather nice arty “botanical” shots, so I thought I’d have a go. In the end, this macro image won out though, and my hi-key effort turned out to be not that hi-key after all. That’s OK, I’ll filter the s**t out of it on Instagram. Also known as “Good Friday Grass”, Luzula campestris was a week late around these parts this year, needing the first warm weather on Good Friday to get it going. Or maybe, Easter was too early… Anyhow, here comes the botany bit. How do I know this 10cm plant nodding at me from my sodden lawn and giving me another excellent reason not to mow it is a rush? Because:
Sedges have edges and
Rushes are round and
Grasses have nodes
all the way to the ground.
Field Wood-rush – Luzula campestris.
Nikon D7200 EL Nikkor 50mm f2.8 N f5.6 1/80 ISO 800, 5 image focus stack.
Danish Scurvygrass
If you’ve been paying attention you’ll have noticed the white froth along all the major roads at the moment. If you pull off and investigate, it looks like this. Danish Scurvygrass was unknown inland 50 years ago, but with the ever increasing tonnage of salt risk-averse councils pour onto the roads each year this seaside plant has taken advantage of the niche we have built for it.
Danish Scurvygrass – Cochlearia danica.
An appeal on behalf of the Varied Carpet Beetle
The Varied Carpet Beetle Anthrenus verbasci, is experiencing a tough time. While in former years its famous “Woolly Bear” larvae munched their way through your winter woolies and Axminsters, now they can only blunt their mandibles on your acrylic Christmas jumpers and your polypropylene shag pile. The Varied Carpet Beetle Trust is asking everyone to put out small piles of wool in quiet corners of your home to encourage the Varied Carpet Beetle to breed. Even better, all home owners could consider buying a sheep – when they’re not providing a much needed banquet for your beetles they are also handy footstools and waste disposal units – and as a bonus they’ll give you a useful source of manure for your houseplants.
So please, give generously this April 1st and do everything you can to support the Varied Carpet Beetle.
AJC Photography 