Ringlet, Spotted Black Pigmy and Tumbling Flower Beetle

Ringlet, Aphantopus hyperantus

to view a gallery with more photos, click here

Yesterday I returned to the Whiteways meadow to try out my old 105 micro-nikkor lens (purchased 1984) with a PK-13 extension tube which I believe provides x1.4 magnification. This is manual equipment. This is the highest magnification where I can still see the subject through the viewfinder so that I can manually focus at f/36. When I added an additional small extension tube, I could no longer see the subject at f/36. I could use a tripod, focus with the aperture wide open, then close down for the shot, but in the field I use a monopod. Some of the shots were in reasonable focus compared with my Sigma autofocus macro lens.

I was pleased to discover a tiny (approx 2mm) moth called a Spotted Black Pigmy. I got one shot before it flew off. This is a leaf miner moth - the larvae form mines in Oak leaves.

Like the leaf miner, the Tumbling Flower Beetle was also not sharp. Other Lepidoptera seen: Meadow Brown, Ringlet, Marbled White, Small Heath, Common Blue, Dark Strawberry Tortrix, Garden Grass-veneer, Straw Dot. The Peacock larvae have grown a lot since Saturday and are no longer in tight groups.

14-spot Ladybird, Propylea 14-punctata

Harlequin Ladybird, Harmonia axyridis

Ant, Formica species

Blue Bottle Fly, Calliphora vomitoria

Chafer, Omaloplia ruricola

Common Beech nut, Fagus sylvatica

Common Carder Bumblebee, Bombus Pascuorum

Common Earwig, Forficula auricularia

Dark Strawberry Tortrix, Celypha lacunana

Deadly Nightshade, Atropa belladonna

False Oil Beetle, female, Oedemera nobilis

female Wolf spider with cocoon, Pardosa lugubris

Garden Grass-veneer, Chrysoteuchia culmella

Grass fly, Chloropidae

Harlequin Ladybird, Harmonia axyridis

Jumping spider, Heliophanus flavipes

Kentish Snail, Monacha cantiana

Leaf beetle, Cryptocephalus species and Flea beetles, Chrysomelidae species

Marbled White taking off, Melanargia galathea

This is a typical view of a disappearing butterfly - they seem to know I am pressing the shutter button.

Meadow Brown, Maniola jurtina

Meadow Plant Bug, male, Leptopterna dolabrata

Mirid bug, Grypocoris stysi

Noon Fly, Mesembrina meridiana

Peacock larva, Inachis io

Peacock larvae

Red Bug nymph, Deraeocoris ruber

Ringlet, Aphantopus hyperantus
Canon Powershot G9

Canon Powershot G9

female Sawfly, Xiphydria prolongata

male Scorpion fly, Panorpa species

Spotted Black Pigmy moth, Ectoedemia subbimaculella

Straw Dot, Rivula sericealis

 Flea beetles, Chrysomelidae species

Tumbling Flower Beetle, Anaspis maculata

White-lipped Snail, Cepaea hortensis

Woody Nightshade, Solanum dulcamara