Mimic

Another crazy day allowed me only a brief time out with the camera, right at the end of the afternoon, so I popped up to Cleeve Prior to see what I could find in the Community Orchard. I saw my first Marbled White of the year, which was lovely, but she wouldn't pose, so I only managed record shots of her deep in some unattractive undergrowth. There must have been at least a hundred White-legged Damselflies floating about, and I've included an overhead shot of a mature male as my second image, but this was one of those very rare occasions when I didn't realise how close I was getting to my subject, and I wound up overfilling the (completely uncropped) frame.

But for there being too much damsel in that second photo it might well have made it to top spot, but as it is my favourite shot of the day is this portrait of a male Bumblebee Hoverfly (Volucella Bombylans). I love this species, which is surely one of the most successful of the bee mimics, but they tend to be skittish - their random and erratic movement being one of the most basic ways of spotting that it's not actually a bee you're pursuing - and I had to give up on the macro here and use the long lens instead. I'm only sad that this is a male specimen rather than a female, because, impressive though his antennae* are, those of female Volucella bombylans are outrageously extravagant.

R: C2, D15.

* 'Plumose' is the technical term for these feathery antennae. Betraying myself as a child of the 1960s, when I first got into all this insect stuff I initially read this as 'Plumrose'. Ham sandwich, anyone?