My Sidmouth Nature Diary

  This time of year countless 'daddy-long-legs' appear; they all seem to hatch about the same time in one huge awakening. This is probably the most common species of crane fly found in Britain and whilst it can be seen during the summer months it is certainly abundant in autumn. They are attracted to light like moths are and can often be found around buildings, especially those with an outside light. This particular species is probably  Tipula paludosa . It has a close cousin, Tipula oleracae which is virtually identical but my book says oleracae has thirteen segments in its antennae and paludosa has fourteen. Try counting them without a microscope ...! Paludosa has wings a little shorter than its body whereas oleracae has wings a little longer. It is difficult to be sure from the photograph but given that paludosa is most common in autumn whereas oleracae is more frequent in spring I will stick with this being paludosa until someone can positively identify it otherwise for me...

  Distinguishing between some species of hoverfly can be a real challenge, some species can only be told apart by examination under a microscope but that means capturing and killing a specimen and I am not about to do that. Mine is a hobby project not a scientific study. Some species, however, are distinctive enough to be identified even from a distance and this one [ Episyrphus balteatus]  being only 10mm or so in length is one of those more easily identified specimens. It is a slender insect with a quite distinctive shaped abdomen and has a unique pattern of markings on its back. Usually orange and with three alternate pairs of thick and narrow black bars it has earned the nickname of the marmalade hoverfly but you probably will not find it referred to as that in reference books. This particular insect caught my eye as it has three grey bands and I wondered if it was something other than 'balteatus' but upon reference to my 'bible' on hoverflies I find the markings ca...