{"id":2971,"date":"2020-12-31T11:47:08","date_gmt":"2020-12-31T00:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/?p=2971"},"modified":"2020-12-31T11:47:08","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T00:47:08","slug":"years-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/2020\/12\/31\/years-end\/","title":{"rendered":"Year&#8217;s End."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A selection of shots to finish out 2020, a year that for invertebrates has been more encouraging than the last, with reasonable numbers of a variety of species observed. Some have been sparser than normal or even absent, while others have been in good numbers. A lot more study is needed for the bigger picture to become clearer, but we live in hope.<br \/>\nWith the hot weather yet to arrive cicadas haven&#8217;t been all that noticeable, but this small one was spotted on the concrete. It was picked up out of harm&#8217;s way and photographed before re-locating to a safer spot. It is Yoyetta celis, the Silver Princess.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/cicada.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/cicadab.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"463\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>While waiting for the butterflies to come in to the Xerochrysums, a Blue Skimmer landed close to the camera tripod. The blue colour is starting to appear on this individual.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/caledonicum.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/caledonicumb.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"603\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And nearby, a robberfly, Apothechyla species landed on a callistemon giving a good view of its rostrum. this is the same species <a href=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix22\/robbernef.jpg\">photographed recently<\/a> with prey.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/robbl.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/robblb.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A smaller robberfly was photographed using flash with poor results, so another attempt was made during a lull in the breeze using natural light, giving a much better outcome.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/robberfly.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/robberflyb.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"511\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This insect is a tricky one, looking at a casual glance to be a wasp. It is however a wasp mimicking hoverfly, Ceriana species, possibly C. breviscapa. Colour markings, and the small waist strongly resemble a potter wasp, but the clubbed antennae are quite different.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/hovw1.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"821\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/hovw2.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"849\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Drone flies have been about but hard to catch up with, finally though,<\/p>\n<p>Eristalinus punctulatus.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/drone1.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"773\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/drone2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/drone2b.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"530\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Three wasp shots to finish the year, a Hairy Flower Wasp, Subfamily Tiphiinae,<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/wasp.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/waspb.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"528\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A native bee parasite, Gasteruption species,<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/gast2b.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"827\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And a Sand Wasp, Bembix species with a fly for its nursery burrow.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/pix23\/swaspprey.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"880\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A selection of shots to finish out 2020, a year that for invertebrates has been more encouraging than the last, with reasonable numbers of a variety of species observed. Some have been sparser than normal or even absent, while others have been in good numbers. A lot more study is needed for the bigger picture &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/2020\/12\/31\/years-end\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Year&#8217;s End.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2971\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}