Insect graffiti...or fly-posting!

I didn't post a photograph yesterday as I was doing some last minute (typically) preparation for delivering the President's Lecture to Chesham & District Natural History Society. It was a special occasion to mark the 50th anniversary of the society, so I wanted the talk to be good. However, this morning I remembered I had taken some photos early in the day of some leaf mines - the patterns left by the larvae of various insects as they eat and develop within the leaves of a whole range of plants. In this case it is a primrose leaf that has been mined and, appropriately, it is a small fly Chromatomyia primulae that has produced its offspring here. If you are finding nature a bit boring in the approach to winter, remember there are still lots of plant galls and leaf mines to go looking for!