And later, on the Königstuhl, a nicely-patterned crane fly.

In Latin it's Limonia nigropunctata, & in German it may be (!) the Schwarzpunktierte Stelzmücke, but it doesn't have a common name in English, as it's only rarely seen there.

#Heidelberg 🏰
#Photography 📷️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️
#BugOfTheDay 🐞
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An amorous pair of fourteen-spot ladybirds (Propylea quartuordecimpunctata; 🇩🇪 Vierzehnpunkt-Marienkäfer or Schachbrett-Marienkäfer).

This picture shows just how variable the species also known just as P-14 can be, from fourteen black spots on a yellow background, to the black spots merging & yielding the inverse.

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#Photography 📷️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️
#BugOfTheDay 🐞
#MacroPhotography 🔬
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In a similar vein, I spotted this beast in roughly the same place & from the same distance a few moments later.

It's likely to be a sawfly in genus Macrophya, & perhaps M. annulata, the black orange-band sawfly, given hint of orange coming through the wings.

Will keep an eye out for it.

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#Photography 📷️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️
#BugOfTheDay 🐞
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#InsectsOfMastodon 🪰
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲

And returning to today, I only caught a brief & distant glimpse of this ichneumon wasp. When it flew off, it flashed a bright yellow abdomen.

My best guess based on the patterns is a yellow-striped Darwin wasp, Ichneumon xanthorius.

I saw one a few weeks ago, but its abdomen indeed had multiple yellow & black stripes.

#Heidelberg 🏰
#Photography 📷️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️
#BugOfTheDay 🐞
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#InsectsOfMastodon 🪰
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Here's one I forgot to post yesterday – a yet another new red & black species for me, an uncommon seed bug in genus Horvathiolus.

My best guess is H. superbus (which I mentally read as super-bus, not superb-us 🤷‍♂️), but the two black marks on the wing cover sides are rather narrower than in other pictures I've seen.

Thoughts?

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#Photography 📷️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️
#BugOfTheDay 🐞
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Apparently this little beetle is rather common across Europe and into Central Asia, but I can't say that I've seen many of them before.

It's a 22-spot ladybird (Psyllobora vigintiduopunctata; Zweiundzwanzigpunkt-Marienkäfer) – very literal names in all three languages 🙂

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#Photography 📷️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️
#BugOfTheDay 🐞
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#InsectsOfMastodon 🪰
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲