Mastodawn

Second one's harder. A tiny black fly, likely in the subfamily Empidinae, the dance flies.

Nailing the species is tough – Wikipedia has an image of Rhamphomyia umbripennis which looks almost identical, but they're not common. There are few shots on iNaturalist, where they typically have redder eyes.

Do the feathery hind legs help narrow it down? 🧐

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Mark McCaughrean 24m ago

A couple of bonus flies from the garden today – it was cloudy & dark, & while not cold, it wasn't warm either.

The first one seems fairly clear: it's a heleomyzid fly (🇩🇪 Scheufliege), Suillia variegata. Pretty patterns on the thorax.

First picture is a macro stack, while the second is a single image taken a bit closer, showing the compound eye nicely.

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Mark McCaughrean 1h ago

This much smaller shield bug was perched on a nearby leaf at the same time, but fell off (!) when a gust of wind came by, meaning I didn't get such good pictures.

This one is a woundwort shield bug (Stagonomus venustissimus; 🇩🇪 Schillerwanze).

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Mark McCaughrean 1h ago

Ok, it's time for Mark's "Fun with shield bugs".

It can be very confusing telling the many species apart, especially the nymphs, which change a lot as they mature.

But ... I think this large one is a northern fruit bug (Carpocoris fuscispinus; 🇩🇪 Nördliche Fruchtwanze), not C. mediterraneus (too far north) or C. purpureipennis (no black shoulders).

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Mark McCaughrean 1d ago

As for this one, it's very likely an ichneumon wasp, but being more specific within that huge family is difficult.

There are 3,600 species in Germany alone, so narrowing it down is tough. There's a very similar picture shown for Hercus fontinalis on Wikipedia, but in other pictures, it looks quite different.

Any wasp experts in the house?

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Mark McCaughrean 1d ago

Harder to photo & ID is this much smaller metallic fly, perched on the edge of a tulip.

From the shape & sheen, it's likely in genus Psilopa (shore or brine flies in English; Uferfliege in 🇩🇪), & one plausible option for the species would be P. nitidula.

That said, we're quite some way from any sea or brine, so maybe it's something else entirely 😬

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Mark McCaughrean 1d ago

Still slowly crawling towards full-blown spring here – mostly cloudy & not that warm yet 🤷‍♂️

But still some things to see in the garden, starting with this pretty fly.

From the colouration, & arrangement of bristles on the thorax & around the eyes, my best guess is a female common European greenbottle (Lucilia sericata; 🇩🇪 Goldfliege / Grüne Goldfliege).

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Santiago, né ?

👾1d ago

I think there’s a bug between my keyboards.

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Mark McCaughrean 2d ago

Just as the sun was setting over the valley, I had brief glimpses of a couple more familiar species for the first time this year, catching the last rays:

1. A greater bee fly (Bombylius major; 🇩🇪 Großer Wollschwebe);

2. A Holcostethus sphacelatus shield bug; 🇩🇪 Offener Lorch).

I'm sure I'll see a lot more of both as spring continues.

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Mark McCaughrean 2d ago

And with its mind on different business, perhaps, I saw this little ant running around.

It was tiny, around 2mm long, & hard to capture photos of, but the most likely ID is Temnothorax unifasciatus, in the Myrmicinae sub-family.

They exhibit altruistic behaviour, withdrawing from the colony when close to death, to avoid infecting other its relatives.

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