Richie Howard

Lots more Xishuangbanna arthropods still to come. Here’s some tephritid fruit flies in the genus Bactrocera, seemingly nectaring from an arum.

#diptera

Fierce looking orb weaver from Xishuangbanna, I think possibly in the genus Argiope?

#arachnids #china

Stalk-eyed flies (Diopsidae) spotted (a first for me) capering around in Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Yunnan Province, China.

Mortonagrion aborense (Zygoptera: Coenagrionidae) from Xishuangbanna.

Tenebrionidae from Xishuangbanna I have not been able to identify.

#bugsky #entomology #coleoptera

Yellow Featherlegs (Copera marginipes) was the most frequent of the many zygopterans I saw in Xishuangbanna - widespread Asian member of the Platycnemididae.

#zygoptera #odonata #bugsky #entomology

Dai street art in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province. May 2019.

#china #travel

#entomology #bugsky #china

Then back in the lobby this libellulid was perched on the wall (Zyxomma petiolatum) and finally some kind of June Bug (as I know them) was on the wall of my rooms balcony. I could tell already this was such a fabulously biodiverse place and couldn’t wait to get into the jungle!

A few more critters from around the accomodation. An amazing evening chorus from Sylvirana nigrovittata, a small pond outside the hotel was full of these noisy little frogs.

A beautiful tiger moth Nyctemera adversata on my first evening stroll during my stay in Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanic Garden.

#moths #lepidoptera #bugsky #entomology

All drawn to the light - the nymphalid Burmese Bushbrown (Mycalesis perseoides), the tiger moth Macrobrochis gigas, some kind of tussock moth and the coenagrionid damselfly Yellow Featherlegs (Copera marginipes).

#bugsky #entomology #yunnan

Alongside the geckos, I saw a dazzling array of Lepidoptera and Odonata in Xishuangbanna as soon as I arrived at the hotel too.

Oriental House Gecko (Hemidactylus bowringii spotted in the hotel of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanic Garden. May 2019.

#reptiles #china #herpetology

Spotted this Lemon Pansy (Junonia lemonias) in a small village almost right on the Tropic of Cancer to the south of Pu’er en route to Xishuangbanna. May 2019.

#china #yunnan #lepidoptera #bugsky

#china #yunnan #kunming #travel

That said, the difference between my first visit in December 2018 and my return in May 2019 was still very noticeable with May an absolute riot of colour compared to the moderate blooms of the winter! Though it was only a little hotter, around 25-28 degrees compared to 18-21.

However, this temperate climate is less affected by seasonal extremes due to its near tropical latitude - so the flowers always bloom!

Scenes from the City of Eternal Spring in May 2019. Kunming is pleasant all year round as it sits just north of the Tropic of Cancer but is 1,900 metres above sea level on the karst topography of the Yunnan-Guizhou plateau - so it has an effectively temperate climate.

Looking a bit worse for wear, but one of the coolest Lepidoptera I have ever seen! The Moon Moth Actias selene on the old city campus of Yunnan University one warm May evening in 2019.

#bugsky #lepidoptera #entomology #moths

May 2019 saw me return to Yunnan Province for another research trip - this time the City of Eternal Spring was in full bloom! So naturally my first destination was a return to Green Lake Park to see the Chinese Pond Heron on fresh spring lotus leaves. Amazing little birds.

#china #birds #birding

A very impressive female St Mark’s Fly (Bibio marci). Falmouth, 2019.

#cornwall #diptera #bugsky #entomology

Scathophaga sp. and a male Bibio marci from my walk on the Roseland Heritage Coast, April 2019.

#diptera #entomology #bugsky #cornwall

St Anthony’s Church on the Roseland Peninsula of southwest Cornwall.

Wall, Speckled Wood and Speckled Yellow from the SWCP at St Anthony Head, April 2019.

#cornwall #lepidoptera #butterflies #entomology

A few old shots of Pendennis Point and Falmouth Bay, April 2019.

Handsome example of a female Philodromus dispar. Falmouth, April 2019.

#spiders #arachnology #bugsky

An early Speckled wood at Pendennis Point, Falmouth. Always one of the first species of the year. April 2019.

#lepidoptera #bugsky

Positively evil looking ichneumon - Tromatobia lineatoria. A parasitoid of spider egg sacs. College Woods, Penryn. April 2019.

#bugsky #hymenoptera #entomology

Excellent dance fly, Empis tessellata, looking menacing in College Woods, Penryn. April 2019.

#bugsky #entomology #diptera