Warburg Reserve – 18th July 2010
Today I went for a quick walk around Warburg nature reserve, near Henley-on-Thames. The main idea was to check for Villa cingulata (a rare speciality of the site) and to generally have a look for tachinids. Villa were seen in good numbers around the visitor’s center, The Range and Big Ashes ride – at least a dozen individuals seen either nectaring on parsnip or sunning at ground level.
Other species seen: lots of Silver-washed Fritillaries, Tachina fera (mainly very small individuals), Aplomya confinis, Nowickia ferox, a couple of Gasteruption jaculator (female), Chrysotoxum festivum, Chrysotoxum bicinctum, worker hornets, a few tachinids and lots of sarcophagids – lots of Cleg flies too!!
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- Chrysotoxum festivum
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- Gasteruption jaculator (female)
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- Villa cingulata, being eaten by a crab spider
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- Villa cingulata on parsnip
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- Villa cingulata sunning
Great photos! I dream of such species up here in the cold north!
I think the Chrysotoxum is festivum, not cautum (very different markings).
Going back to 3rd July, I think the Stratiomys is potamida, not chamaeleon (yellow bars look thin and more like this).
Ian
Hi Chris your Chrysotoxum is festivumm – I have not seen one for a couple of years, so quite a nice find.
Hi Nigel – thanks for that corrections – I’ll update the photos. It was just me being too lazy to look the Chrysotoxum up – serves me right!
I also forgot to update the strat – my PC has been broken for a while and I am still waiting for the replacement … never buy a Dell if you really have to have a PC quickly … grrrr.
Thanks – I’ll update the photo