Picture-winged flies

We left the house at 5.45 and were at our site in Surrey by about 8.30, having driven though wonderful early morning mist - and it was already hot! The survey was definitely a slog - mostly rather uninteresting grassland that was tall and hard to walk through. Combined with slight hills and extreme heat, it made it all rather exhausting. We stopped for lunch in one of the few shady spots, but this may have been a mistake, as I felt decidedly odd for a short while afterwards - food and heat don't go well together.

The early start meant that we were able to finish early, and were on our way home again by 3 p.m. One of the last paths we walked along was lined with both Greater and Lesser Burdock - at one point I got my hair tangled in the burs of the Greater Burdock and thought I wasn't going to be able to escape! The Lesser Burdock was covered with these picture-winged flies Terellia tussilaginis. which is a frequent species on burdock in southern England, causing galls to form.