This pretty little moth looks white at first glance, but it isn’t, exactly. There’s a small black spot near the middle of the wing; a slightly checkered border; and a row of black marks with little blue spots near the outer edge of the hind wing. The caterpillars feed on duckweed, so the adults are always near water. This one was just by the boardwalk over the main pond at Gunnersbury Triangle.
Macrophya (Symphyta) mating on Hogweed: one of two mating pairs, and many individuals around in the warm sunshine this afternoon. Mating lasts for less than a minute, so the photographer has to be lucky and quick
Small bee pollinating Hogweed (flying between flowers)
Tiny speckled beetle pollinating Hogweed
Rose Chafer on Hogweed
Oedemera nobilis on Hogweed
Strangalia maculata longhorn beetle on Hogweed
Marvellously slender long-tailed Ichneumon, on Hogweed of course (just look at that ovipositor!)
OK, and to end, one insect NOT on Hogweed, the Small China-Mark Moth, on a Reed. It and many others of its species were fluttering about the pond, where they mate and lay eggs in waterside vegetation. I was really pleased to get the camera so close to this attractive little insect.
Small China-Mark Moth
The English seem unemotional … except for their passion for nature
