# worldsnakeday worldrobberflyday taxonomistappreciationday yearofthefly

no.204. Volucella zonaria, the hornet mimic hoverfly. Alongside a real hornet, Vespa crabro. Would it fool you? Larvae feed in wasp nests, to add to the insult. Photos by NHM's Kevin Webb.

29 93
2019-07-24

no.200. Stylops nevinsoni, the first strepsipteran of the series. Lovely specimen featuring winged male, Andrena fulva host and female Stylops sticking their butts out of the Andrena abdomen. Amazing antennae on that male.

21 96
2019-07-20

no.197. It's so here are two pink elephants! Larvae of Elephant Hawk-moth (Deilephila elpenor) look like little snakes. Which you can see on the rather excellent UK Moths site https://t.co/tQnXiLtRk7

11 48
2019-07-17

no.161. Disgraceful that I've not featured Raphidioptera yet. So here is a snakefly, Raphidia notata, from the UK. Amazing insects, predatory and with a long ovipositor for laying eggs under bark.

11 53
2019-06-11

no.156. Ampulex compressa, the beautiful jewel wasp that zombifies cockroaches. Biology is amazing, as is venom chemistry. Great video here: https://t.co/ZZW0HvnnAp. Specimen photos for previous Venom exhibition (and cool book by Ronald Jenner...)

37 119
2019-06-06

no.128, the iconic flea from Robert Hooke's Micrographia, which you can peruse here: https://t.co/uPHRwAOgQA. An excuse to link to a favourite poem: https://t.co/s861wHO54o. And did you know the Royal Society hosted the first flea circus? https://t.co/ABaeM1QAI5

6 28
2019-05-09

no.120. For here's a tiny wasp that parasitises their eggs (probably). Brachista efferiae has been found hitching a lift on robberflies, presumably for nefarious purposes.

7 41
2019-05-01

no.108. The head of an angel, Zorotypus assymetricus. Zoraptera, or Angel Insects, are colonial and typically live in rotting wood. Usually eyeless and wingless, as in this paratype, but winged forms can be produced, giving the lie to Zoraptera ('pure wingless').

11 45
2019-04-19

no.106. Because it's just emerged after I reared it from a larva under rotting wood, here is a smart snipe fly (Rhagionidae), Rhagio scolopaceus (I think!). And if you are a fly fan you might want to listen to on Radio 4: https://t.co/wPSXwr02aa

6 35
2019-04-17

no.96. Madagascan cicada, Pycna strix, from new paper by https://t.co/OHCA7GGiED Descended from a Miocene dispersal from Africa. And proof that it is never too late to publish those PhD chapters.

10 34
2019-04-07

no. 88. Hymenoptera again but no apologies: outrageous ovipositors, of Zaglyptogastra (top) and Labena (below), both ichneumonoid wasps. Different ways of accessing concealed hosts, threading and drilling. On gallery tonight, with .

6 28
2019-03-29

no.78, and Not only wasps, but new species of wasp food are also continually being described by taxonomists. I love the name of this butterfly from Colombia, Splendeuptychia mercedes, described by

12 32
2019-03-20

no.39. Sticking with Hymenoptera, here's the first ant of this series: Paraponera clavata, the Bullet Ant. Infamous as its venom is at the top end of the Schmidt index of sting pain. https://t.co/cGovlUQrHu

4 28
2019-02-09

no.36. Diptera: Tachinidae. Often called bristle flies, for obvious reasons. This Gymnochaeta viridis is evidence that not all of the most beautiful parasitoids are wasps. Just most of them.

10 46
2019-02-06

no.27. Trichoptera and Hymenoptera! Look out for caddis cases in rivers with long silk ribbons protruding. The ichneumonid wasp Agriotypus armatus over-winters in the cocoon of its host caddis, in this case (pun intended...), Odontocerum albicorne.

17 56
2019-01-28

no.5: Migrant Hawker . One of 19 Odonata species found so far on this tiny tidal island with one small pond. It's a great place to see how many insects fly large distances.

8 31
2019-01-06