what katydid?

I joined inaturalist last week and it is a great resource for identifying lesser-known taxa. Doubtless I will be using it a lot in the future (although whether I will ever have time to make a serious contribution is another matter...). Imagine my surprise when the first photo I uploaded turned out to be the third ever record of the stunning katydid Pronomapyga grandis. Bwindi Forest (Uganda).

postcard from Corfu

 Misumena vatia

Finally got round to posting a few photographs from my Corfu trip last month!

 Southern festoon (Zerynthia polyxena) larvae were everywhere on Aristolochia, must have missed the adults?

 Number 2 found this assassin bug (Rhynocoris iracundus) on a walk along the coast.

Fireflies were everywhere at night around our riverside accommodation.

Orchids were reasonably abundant but confusing...

Calopteryx virgo

Seeing blue chaser (Libellulla fulva) is always a highlight.

The primary reason we went to Corfu was to track down some critically endangered Greek red damsels (Pyrrhosoma elisabethae), which we managed to do. Only one site seems to remain on Corfu sadly.

I was very pleased to finally catch up with Grecian copper (Lycaena ottomana) at the damsel site.

Birds were spotted during the week, invariably common migrants like this great reed warbler.

We only recorded ten species of Odonates, with most being recorded away from water like this immature Crocothemis.

Egyptian grasshoppers (Anacridium aegyptium) were egg-laying on all the sandy tracks we walked.

 The kids enjoyed finding tortoises on the trip, all were the expected Hermann's tortoise (Testudo hermanni) until we found this big marginated tortoise (Testudo marginata) on the walk up Mt Pantokrator. Perhaps a released pet? This species does occur on the nearby mainland though.

Another surprise on Corfu is the presence (again on Pantokrator) of chukar. Not present according to BWP but presumably must have been introduced for hunting?

Postcard from Hungary

Phil is... currently enjoying Hungary.

The emphasis of the trip is on bats, many different roosts have been visited so far this week from small roof spaces and chimneys to natural cave roosts.

Any late summer trip in Central Europe is going to throw up some great encounters with splendid creatures. We visited one chalk grassland area that was hooching with wartbiters (Decticus verrucivorus).

A first for me was an adult common spadefoot, recorded after rain in Aggtelek NP one night. There are very few records for the park apparently.

Another great find was the Carpathian purple slug (Bielzia coerulans) - here in rather drab autumn plumage.

Dragonflies get a look-in of course. This Orthetrum brunneum was a nice year-tick and we are hoping for many more species when we hit some steppe plain wetlands later on in the trip.

Visiting so many bat roosts is a rare privilege, we have seen 13 species at roost or in the hand so far. Grey long-eared bat gets the comedy award.

Take me to your leader.

Reptiles are proving surprisingly elusive but sand lizards have performed, alongside common wall and green lizard.

Anyone for crickets?

Great green bush-cricket - female nymph. One of many in the valley mire at Sinarpsdalen today.

Another lazy start saw us in the field at midday for a look at the valley mire at Sinarpsdalen. Strong westerlies and a cool temperature put down all Odonata activity. Twenty minutes tramping about failed to turn up a single damselfly or dragonfly. But I did find my first BK raft spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus), a shy female close to a web-nest crammed full of young. There were also plenty of Great green bush-cricket nymphs (Tettigonia viridissima) in the wetland today.

A quick look at Klarningen after lunch revealed the site to be empty of waders and ducks but a quail was singing away and as we drove off a 2K hobby dashed about after swallows.