So, fans of space & LEGO (surely a strong overlap in the Venn diagram):

Matt Taylor, project scientist for ESA's Rosetta comet mission, tells me there's a proposed model of Rosetta & Philae on LEGO IDEAS, based on how they looked in the cartoon films we made in 2013-2016 🛰️☄️

It needs community support for a chance of official LEGO adoption, so do your thing (you need to create an account but it only takes a minute).

Please boost 👍

#RosettaLegacy

https://beta.ideas.lego.com/product-ideas/affb6092-91aa-4de9-9ceb-21d3926dc283

Spotted this tiny little larva hanging from a leaf – it can't have been more than 2mm long.

From the legs & the large black head / eyes, I'd say that it's a larva of a sawfly rather than a butterfly or moth.

That'd make it superfamily Tenthredinoidea, but any more specific than that, I don't know & iNaturalist isn't too helpful either.

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

As the photos suggest, I only had a momentary glimpse of this wolf spider in the undergrowth before it rushed off into hiding.

But from black body & contrasting grey stripe, along with legs that are black at the top, brown lower, I suspect that it might be a woodland wolf spider (Pardosa saltans; Tanzender Laufwolf in 🇩🇪).

#Heidelberg 🏰
#Photography 📷️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️
#BugOfTheDay 🐞
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#ArachnidsOfMastodon 🕷️
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲

Let the games begin.

A day of intermittent bright sunshine, heavy cloud, rain, & hail – spring! 🌦️

But in the gaps, a first sighting of a dronefly, genus Eristalis.

They can be hard to differentiate 😬, but while E. tenax & E. pertinax are very common here, I think this is a female E. similis, the glass-winged dronefly (Schwarze Bienenschwebfliege in 🇩🇪).

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

Err, no 😬

Something got badly lost in translation here.

An Olympic swimming pool is ~2.5 million litres.

Two per hour, 24 hrs per day = 120 million litres.

But 120 *cubic kilometres* = 120 million million litres.

Just a million times more 🙄

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/29/europe-vegetable-garden-greenhouses-andalusia-spain

A reminder that in older German, the letters i & j were interchangeable, as they were in Roman / Latin too 🏛️

Plus chlorophyll is over-rated 😛

Both seen on today’s 49km ride – cold still, so in full winter gear again 🥶🤷‍♂️

#Heidelberg 🏰
#CyclingLife 🚴‍♂️
#Photography 📷

Bit of a mystery.

This is definitely a thin-legged wolf spider (genus Pardosa), & the large, hairy, black pedipalps say it's a male, but which species?

Given that I'm in southern Germany, the best bet would be one of P. nigriceps, P. hortensis, or P. amentata.

But the markings on the cephalothorax don't quite match any of those 🤷‍♂️

Anyone? 🧐

#Heidelberg 🏰
#Photography 📷️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️
#BugOfTheDay 🐞
#MacroPhotography 🔬
#ArachnidsOfMastodon 🕷️
#BackGardenEntomology 🪲