Mediterranean Pyrenees
  • Home
  • About
  • Galleries
    • Birds of the Mediterranean Pyrenees >
      • Common Birds of the Mediterranean Pyrenees by Isobel
    • Weather in the Mediterranean Pyrenees >
      • Weather: skies and storms in the Mediterranean Pyrenees
      • Clouds above the Mediterranean Pyrenees by Isobel
      • The summer of 2015 by Isobel
    • Bruce's Pix >
      • Beetles, Bugs and other insects
      • Birds
      • Butterflies
      • Butterflies of La Batère
      • Canigou
      • Castles
      • Dragonflies
      • Flowers
      • Pyrenees Landscapes
      • TGV
      • UK photos
    • Isobel's Images >
      • Isobel's favourite images
      • Springtime in an Alberes garden
      • In the garden
      • Tour de Batere, spring 2015 with Robin Noble
    • Lesley's Snaps >
      • Insects & Arachnids
      • Bees
      • Birds
      • Les Albères
      • Elsewhere in the region
    • Robin's Photos
    • Martine's Photos
    • GUESTS' Gallery
  • Birdsong
  • Blog
  • Resources
  • Contact
ALL SORTS OF INSECTS ON THIS PAGE
Plus arachnids
(Go here for bees)
Picture
A female Tent-web spider set up residence in our garden, mid-July 2020

Click on photos below for larger images and labels.
Picture
Spider-hunting wasp (Cryptocheilus alternatus)
Picture
Picture
Rough Saddle Bush Cricket - at about 1500m (height limit for the species)
Picture
Picture
Picture
Scarlet Darter Dragonfly (m)
Picture
Violet Dropwing Dragonfly (m)
Picture
Dragonfly has just emerged from its nymph exuvia. The stringy bits are apparently the remains of its previous respiratory system. Too early to tell what species it is - possibly a Western Clubtail
This comical, furry Bee-mimic fly makes me laugh. It looks like a tiny bumblebee and behaves in a similar way, hovering and darting from flower to flower. You often hear its high pitched whiny buzz before you see it. In flight, those long legs flung out at the back make it look as if it's skipping through the air! Click on photos for larger image.
Picture
Rhinoceros beetle (Oryctes nasicornis). Rescued from our pool, after picking up a couple of passengers that must have mistaken it for a life raft! It's as enormous as it looks, but completely harmless to humans. Its favourite haunt is rotting wood.
Picture
Red-striped Oil beetle - also known as the Blister Beetle. Adults are up to 6cm long and they are fast runners. Although they don't look intimidating, the black and red/orange colouring gives fair warning. If threatened, they release a smelly, oily liquid. Skin that comes into contact with it can blister.
Picture
Hummingbird Hawkmoth
Picture
Shield Bugs
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Stripey on top
Picture
Picture
Picture
Spotted underneath
Picture
Swallowtail on bougainvillea
Below: Swallowtail (click photos for larger image)
And this is the scarce swallowtail (which isn't scarce at all in this region)
Picture
Pupa of scarce swallowtail butterfly
Picture
Great Green Bush Cricket
Picture
Tiny cricket on a salvia leaf (the whole leaf is barely 6cm long). One way of telling the difference between crickets and grasshoppers is by the length of their antennae. Long for crickets, short for grasshoppers.
Picture
Mole Cricket
Picture
Grasshopper
Picture
Long nosed grasshopper
Picture
Rose Chafer - in Red Robin shrub
Picture
And another - in a cordyline
Picture
They can be as pretty underneath...
Picture
...as on top
Picture
But is this a different species of chafer or is it diseased? Dingy compared with the others, with either a growth of some kind or something stuck on its back.
Picture
Praying Mantis
Picture
Cleopatra. This looks like a female but both sexes appear similar with wings closed (and can be hard to distinguish from Brimstones). When they fly, it's a different story.
Picture
Male Cleopatra
Picture
Picture
Female Cleopatra
Picture
Picture
Silver washed fritillary
Picture
Pine Processionary caterpillars
Picture
One of their nests. Photo taken in mid March - this one looks empty now. The hole was probably made by a hungry bird. (Birds seem to be immune to the hairs that can cause severe allergic reactions in humans and animals.)
Picture
In procession across a road, on their way to pupate - which is the only time they leave their tree.
Picture
Speckled Wood (early April)
Picture
This small insect looks like a wasp but I'm not sure it is one. The stripes don't look right and nor do the wings. I didn't see its eyes properly. It might be a hoverfly.
Picture
This wasp is big. Possibly a queen, taking wood from a chair to create paper maché for her nest.
Picture
This is possibly Polistes gallicus - one of the so-called paper wasps. Very tapered abdomen at the front. Their nest is a small 'umbrella' without protective envelopes. I've seen these nests in our garden shed, and one was once started in the boot of my car. They never get big enough to pose problems like those of the common social wasp.
Picture
Digger wasp (solitary). Thorax and abdomen are separated by a long, narrow "bar" (behind its right back leg in this picture), which makes them look intimidating to us - but they aren't aggressive.
Picture
This big, dark insect might be a solitary wasp but so far I can't identify it. It flew into dead grass with its prey, which looks like a bee.
Picture
European hornets
Picture
Asian hornet
Picture
Asian Hornet nest - about 1m high!
Picture
Burnet moths
Picture
Green-veined White
Picture
Tick. Present all year round - especially in long grass - but at their worst in April. They have eight legs so are, in fact, arachnids.
Picture
Picture
One of my favourite bees has been caught by a crab spider.
Click on photos below for larger image.
Picture
Thick-headed fly (Sicus ferrugineus). At a distance, it looked attractive. Less so close up, when I saw its abdomen curled forward underneath. That's not a deformity - they're all like that. Its behaviour is even less appealing: Females lay single eggs on bumblebees. After hatching, a larva burrows into the bee's abdomen - feeding on and later pupating inside its host.
Ladybirds and similar bugs
(click photos for larger image)
Picture
Picture
Adult antlion resting on the leg of a plastic table.
Click photos for larger image.
Lesley McLaren, Bruce Hyde, Isobel Mackintosh, Robin Noble, Martine Howard, mediterraneanpyrenees.com associates and affiliates do not warrant or assume any legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, product or process disclosed. Lesley McLaren, Bruce Hyde, Isobel Mackintosh, Robin Noble, Martine Howard, mediterraneanpyrenees.com and affiliates do not endorse or recommend any commercial products, processes or services and cannot be held liable for any result of the use of such information, products, processes or services discussed on this website.