Ian Andrews

'As Peter says...' 😉

Yes, that's stercoraria...as soon as you see the black antennae, the ID is good. As Steve says, the rest is quite variable, but that one looks pretty normal to me. 🙂

Thanks for that...I had it at saundersi/ornata.

How about a globular springtail on a dead fallow deer to brighten up a Sunday evening? #springtails #collembola @ynuorg.bsky.social

Crack open the champagne...I just passed 1000 identifications of Suillia variegata on @inaturalist.bsky.social ! Easily the most commonly recorded spiny-winged fly across Europe....and easily the easiest member of the family to identify from a photo! 🙂 #heleomyzidae @dipteristsforum.bsky.social

Yes, just regularly spaced along the costa...no longer than the costa is thick in some species, several times longer in others. I don't know the reason. Suillia ustulata here has rather impressive spines.

Scoliocentra villosa ♂ on a fallow deer corpse at #AllerthorpeCommon this week. A favourite spiny-winged fly, found around badger setts, carrion and in caves. This one rather lacking in the fore tarsal area! #Heleomyzidae @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @ynuorg.bsky.social

Trypodendron domesticum...a chunky little 3mm wood-boring beetle I see occasionally on tree trunks, though this one was on top of a dead fallow deer yesterday at #AllerthorpeCommon in East Yorkshire. @ynuorg.bsky.social @yorkswildlife.bsky.social #coleoptera

Excellent...not found any yet this year myself!

Several more bee-flies seen today - hurray 😍 So far we have records for Surrey, Beds, Bucks, Kent, Herts, Middlesex and Guernsey. Where will they appear next? Please enjoy looking out for them and send in your sightings for #BeeFlyWatch - 📸 of the Herts bee-fly by @allanburrows.bsky.social

Blimey...on a Monday, too!

A typically hairy, early-season pertinax...nice. 🙂

Blue Shieldbug (Zicrona caerulea) under a blue sky at Cali Heath @yorkswildlife.bsky.social reserve yesterday. @ynuorg.bsky.social

Oecothea fenestralis (Fallén, 1820) A species displaying typical characteristics of subterranean dwelling, with a small eye and with the 3rd antennal segment (which is slightly flattened on top) having a very long arista, clearly more s...

Please do add it to iRecord...we get precious few records of it each year. flic.kr/s/aHsmpc1UUC

Agree with @kitenet.bsky.social... Oecothea fenestralis. Bristles on the mid-tibia separate from the similar Eccoptomera. Usu. Found down rabbit burrows rather than bathrooms! 😄

Thanks very much. 🙂 I use an Olympus OM-D E-M1 III and 60mm macro.

Simulium reptans, male with large and small facets to the eyes; females feed on mammals inc. humans.
Anyone ecologists needing help with diptera backlog from this year? Or planning lots of diptera work next year, please contact me if I can help.
Please share, ta!
www.dipteraid.co.uk

Limnellia surturi...a rather smart, rather little shore fly (Ephydridae) on sand outside a rabbit burrow at Cali Heath @yorkswildlife.bsky.social reserve yesterday. Looks to be a new VC record. #Ephydridae #shoreflies @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @ynuorg.bsky.social

I'll see your 22-spot and raise you a 24-spot...also yesterday. 🙂

For sure...can't wait for those summer days when they shine out atop umbellifers!

A gorgeous flat-footed fly (Platypezidae) rather than a midge. 🙂

Yes, @naturespotter.bsky.social did a good job with Sooty Griever...fits the species very nicely.

2026 Sawfly season started for me today with 2 Sooty Grievers (Dolerus anthracinus) at Millington Pastures VC61. Associated with quality chalk grassland here and flies (very) early, so is it really as uncommon as 2 records in last 50 years suggests? @ynuorg.bsky.social #yorkshiresawflies #symphyta

Nice morning at Bempton Cliffs...birds were good, spiny-winged flies were better! 😀 Hundreds of Heleomyza serrata, Tephrochlamys rufiventris, Gymnomus caesius and more on handrails by the cliff edge. Always worth having a few pots in the pocket. 😉 @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @ynuorg.bsky.social

Norellia spinipes (Daffodil Dung Fly) One of four British scathophagids with strongly bristled 'raptorial' forelegs. It can be distinguished from the others (all species of Norellisoma) by the presence of only a single (as opposed to a do...

Yup, that's the Daffodil Fly, Norellia spinipes. This is their time on daffs now...I bet you'll start seeing more now you've got your first! flic.kr/s/aHsmVKk8tj

Difficult to say what it is, but not Stomoxys. Thoracic pattern is similar to Phaonia trimaculata, maybe, but I'd only be guessing...looks to be a muscid, anyway. 🙂

Sitona regensteinensis, Bombus hypnorum, Andricus sp.(?) and Troilus luridus....more evidence of spring-awakening at Cali Heath @yorkswildlife.bsky.social reserve from a quick walk round this morning. @ynuorg.bsky.social #entomology #ukwildlife #bombus

Things are waking up! 😀

Confirmed as Triphleba opaca.

Things significantly improving in the insect world...Melinopterus prodromus, Oecothea fenestralis, Piezodorus lituratus (looking rather like some weird sheep?!) and Scathophaga furcata at Cali Heath @yorkswildlife.bsky.social reserve today. @dipteristsforum.bsky.social @ynuorg.bsky.social