Forest Bug, aka Red-legged Shieldbug yesterday, which is reported to be herbivorous, feeding mostly on the sap of Oaks, although on other broadlespaf trees too.. Usually lives along woodland edge. #ScottishWildlife #InvertFest
More info on it here:
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/bugs/forest-bug

Lots of Common Darters by Cocksburn Reservoir today, males, like this one, glowing in the sunshine. #ScottishWildlife #InvertFest #dragonflies

Numbers of Speckled Wood butterflies have increased so much in our area this year, that I can just about ID them from their zany flight pattern. They seem to really like sheltered spots, as do I, of course. More info on them here, including caterpillar food plant- grasses. https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/speckled-wood
#ScottishWildlife #InvertFest #butterflies

This was a lovely Hoverfly on Native Hogweed recently in Doune area. Might be Epistrophe grossulariae, which is recorded on NBN Atlas Scotland in our area. Has a wide body and a short tail. Also, thorax is a dullish green, and grossulariae in Latin name refers to gooseberries so presumably means gooseberry-green. (The things you learn from posting!!) #ScottishWildlife #InvertFest #Hoverfly

Self-sown Buddleia, (an Invasive Non-native Species 🙄), within a Woodland area yesterday, nevertheless providing food sources for a good range of Butterflies and Hoverflies. Photo 1 of a beautiful Comma butterfly, and 2 photos of what I think is the bonny Black-footed Dronefly, Eristalis horticola, with its wide and short body. (Drone flies are a kind of Hover-fly.) Anyone with a better ID? #ScottishWildlife #InvertFest #Butterflies #hoverflies Lots of Peacock butterflies too.

A Marsh/ Black-spotted Snipefly, Raghio tringarius, or similar species, a group sometimes called Downlooker Flies from their habit of perching on tree trunks looking downward for prey. Proboscis said to be like beak of a Snipe (bird), hence Common Name. They suck blood or predate by sucking aphids/ other invertebrates. #ScottishWildlife #InvertFest #Snipefly
Good info on Rhagio Downlooker Snipeflies here:
https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/wildlife-explorer/invertebrates/flies/downlooker-snipefly

Speckled Wood butterfly today basking on Bramble and on path edge, in cool conditions. In between times, very fast and flighty, seeking flowers but not settling on them when it found them. Among some mature broadleaf and mature conifer, near Kippenrait Glen SSSI, but outside its boundary. The seem to be extending their distribution recently in our area. #ScottishWildlife #InvertFest #butterflies

Another small(10mm) but lovely Hoverfly known as the Long Hoverfly - long and thin and its tail sticks out beyond its wings. Sitting/feeding on Meadowsweet I think, please correct if wrong, one wing helpfully folded along its abdomen so you can see the length to compare it with length of tail. #ScottishWildlife #InvertFest #ScottishWildflowers #Wildflowers Latin name: Sphaerophia scripta
More excellent info about it here: https://markavery.info/2018/09/23/paul-leyland-the-long-hoverfly/

Here are another couple of beauties: Possible Halictus rubicundus, or similar species, a kind of Furrow Bee, on Ragwort, (such a great wildflower for pollinators), today near Doune. And some kind of Ichneumon Wasp, species not known, a parasitic wasp, another perjink wee beastie, on what’s probably a bramble leaf, Glen Rd between Bridge of Allan and Dunblane 10 days ago. #ScottishWildlife #ScottishWildflowers #InvertFest

A few Hoverflies from last week, before the temperature dropped. Marmalade Hoverfly on Ragwort. You ID a marmalade by the orangey colour and also by the 2 perjink tiny ‘moustaches’ below the thicker horizontal bars. (Perjink is a great Scottish word = very neat, natty.) Also, I think Meliscaeva cinctella on Native Hogweed. (Cinctella means girdled.) #ScottishWildlife #hoverfly #InvertFest #ScottishWildflowers

Here’s a good blog on the Dragonflies of peat-bogs., written by Melissa of our Scottish Wildlife Trust Group Committee. 👏👏
#ScottishWildlife #InvertFest #Dragonflies #PeatBogs
https://www.buglife.org.uk/blog/beauties-in-the-bog/

Single Spear Thistle flower providing a good buffet for these 3 or 4 Hover-flies. Think they might be Syrphus ribesii, a very common and widespread Hover-fly in the UK. #ScottishWildlife #hoverflies #ScottishWildlfowers #InvertFest

Think this small creature is a Common Groundhopper, Tetrix undulata, today by R Teith near Doune. Near relation of Grasshoppers, but Common Groundhopper cannot fly nor ‘sing’. An older book I have indicates not found in Scotland, but NBN Atlas Scotland shows fairly widely-distributed records in low numbers across much of Scotland. Size range 8-11mm, and colour variable. Cute, though! #ScottishWildlfe #InvertFest

Comma butterfly zooming about among nettles along woodland edge near Logie Kirk a few days ago. Moving too fast and not settling for a photo, so the one below is from a different occasion. Information about this species here:
https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/comma
Nettle is the main foodplant for the caterpillars, which look a bit like bird droppings for camouflage. #ScottishWildlife #InvertFest

Not quite sure if this is a 5-spot or a 6-spot Burnet Moth on Ragwort today, looking a bit tattered. What antennae, though, which makes me think 5-spot, which has stouter antennae than the 6 spot. Caterpillar food plant for this species is Birds-foot Trefoil. Meadowland on Stirling Uni Campus. #ScottishWildlife #InvertFest

In meadowland on Stirling Uni Campus today, found this Grasshopper. No expert but think this is Common Green Grasshopper. Note the striped pattern on the side of its abdomen. Handsome! Did a huge jump away after posing, seemed like 1m, but could this be right? #ScottishWildlife #InvertFest

Get ready for Solitary Bee Week, starting Monday 3rd July. Such interesting wee creatures and very important pollinators. More from Buglife on them here:
https://www.buglife.org.uk/get-involved/solitary-bee-week/
#ScottishWildlife #InvertFest

A Ringlet butterfly showing underside of wings yesterday, and a micromoth, possibly Eudonia lacustrata, Little Grey, (it looked greyer in real life than in the photo). Sitting on my rucksack strap, which is no more then 2cm wide, gives you an idea of how tiny! Lacustrata means ‘lakeside’ but it was beside the far end of Br of Allan Golf Course, though nearish to Cocksburn Reservoir. Larvae eat mosses.
#ScottishWildlife #InvertFest

2 more moths from today: White Plume moth in the garden, often roosting under a leaf, maybe because its luminous whiteness make it very obvious to predators if it roosts on the top? Also, at woodland edge in grassy path edge, a Latticed Heath, interestingly cryptic pattern. #ScottishWildlife #InvertFest

White Plume info:
https://www.wiltshire-butterflies.org.uk/butterfly/view/66

Latticed Heath info:
https://butterfly-conservation.org/moths/latticed-heath

Red-necked Footman moths mating today when walking in woodland near Dunblane. Not seen this before and not seen the yellow abdomen before either, revealed when the mating pair flipped themselves over. #ScottishWildlife #InvertFest More about the species here:

https://butterfly-conservation.org/moths/red-necked-footman