Martin Harvey
@kitenet.bsky.social
Mostly insects and biological recording, UK-based (he/him)
https://linktr.ee/kitenet
https://linktr.ee/kitenet
Two hoverflies enjoying 'aster' flowers (Callistephus?): Syrphus torvus and Helophilus pendulus - these flowers provide a meal service for loads of insects through November
November 8, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Two hoverflies enjoying 'aster' flowers (Callistephus?): Syrphus torvus and Helophilus pendulus - these flowers provide a meal service for loads of insects through November
@worldbollardassoc.bsky.social back in Roman times, a bollard spreads the love by protecting Cupid
November 8, 2025 at 8:49 PM
@worldbollardassoc.bsky.social back in Roman times, a bollard spreads the love by protecting Cupid
Thanks @britentsoc.bsky.social for a great exhibition today, and congrats to @marshawards.bsky.social winners: @markgurn.bsky.social (weevils!), David Brown (moths!) and Laurence Clemons (tephritid flies!)
November 1, 2025 at 4:46 PM
Thanks @britentsoc.bsky.social for a great exhibition today, and congrats to @marshawards.bsky.social winners: @markgurn.bsky.social (weevils!), David Brown (moths!) and Laurence Clemons (tephritid flies!)
And here is the gen det photo for the first confirmed Berkshire record of Rufous Marble (Celypha rufana) - thanks to Dave's sharp eyes for realising this could be interesting and passing it on! #TeamMoth
October 20, 2025 at 10:30 PM
And here is the gen det photo for the first confirmed Berkshire record of Rufous Marble (Celypha rufana) - thanks to Dave's sharp eyes for realising this could be interesting and passing it on! #TeamMoth
Not much activity around the Ivy flowers, but this Brick moth was feeding from honeydew on a Sycamore leaf - seen during this evening's dog walk #TeamMoth
September 23, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Not much activity around the Ivy flowers, but this Brick moth was feeding from honeydew on a Sycamore leaf - seen during this evening's dog walk #TeamMoth
Have always wanted to see a Bombardier Beetle (Brachinus crepitans) but didn't expect that it would turn up on the wall by front door! Hoped for a good photo but it was way too fast for me. This is the beetle that famously is able to spray noxious fumes from its back end to ward off predators.
September 20, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Have always wanted to see a Bombardier Beetle (Brachinus crepitans) but didn't expect that it would turn up on the wall by front door! Hoped for a good photo but it was way too fast for me. This is the beetle that famously is able to spray noxious fumes from its back end to ward off predators.
This larva was in a burrow in quite hard, dry dead wood of a fallen tree trunk, probably oak. Is it a beetle? Or a sawfly??? @nottscoleoptera.bsky.social @andymus.bsky.social @suillia.bsky.social
August 26, 2025 at 8:55 PM
This larva was in a burrow in quite hard, dry dead wood of a fallen tree trunk, probably oak. Is it a beetle? Or a sawfly??? @nottscoleoptera.bsky.social @andymus.bsky.social @suillia.bsky.social
Unexpected item in the kitchen this evening - the ground beetle Scybalicus oblongiusculus, a former rarity that seems to be getting re-established in the south-east. This seems to be the first record for Buckinghamshire. @carabidaeuk.bsky.social
August 8, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Unexpected item in the kitchen this evening - the ground beetle Scybalicus oblongiusculus, a former rarity that seems to be getting re-established in the south-east. This seems to be the first record for Buckinghamshire. @carabidaeuk.bsky.social
Light traps at a Chiltern Society nature reserve in Bucks last night drew in a huge range of moths, and also this splendid and rather large lacewing, Nothochrysa fulviceps, found near a Heath trap under a large oak tree - a first for me and possibly for the county
June 29, 2025 at 5:20 PM
Light traps at a Chiltern Society nature reserve in Bucks last night drew in a huge range of moths, and also this splendid and rather large lacewing, Nothochrysa fulviceps, found near a Heath trap under a large oak tree - a first for me and possibly for the county
Here's a rather fuzzy photo of one from the light trap in Bucks last night!
June 29, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Here's a rather fuzzy photo of one from the light trap in Bucks last night!
This is a fairly widespread soldierfly but until today I'd never managed to find it: Three-lined Soldier, Oxycera trilinatea. Well worth the long wait 😍 At Withymead reserve in Oxfordshire @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social #Diptera #InsectWeek #ento
June 27, 2025 at 8:00 PM
This is a fairly widespread soldierfly but until today I'd never managed to find it: Three-lined Soldier, Oxycera trilinatea. Well worth the long wait 😍 At Withymead reserve in Oxfordshire @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social #Diptera #InsectWeek #ento
Ten years ago the superb hoverfly Callicera aurata briefly visited my garden, and today it was back on the same flowers - what a fabulous fly #InsectWeek #pollinators #ento #Diptera
June 27, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Ten years ago the superb hoverfly Callicera aurata briefly visited my garden, and today it was back on the same flowers - what a fabulous fly #InsectWeek #pollinators #ento #Diptera
Hi @jamesimcc.bsky.social @ajcann.bsky.social apologies for the appalling photo - is this an odd form of Entomobrya albocincta? It seems very stripey!
June 10, 2025 at 10:20 PM
Hi @jamesimcc.bsky.social @ajcann.bsky.social apologies for the appalling photo - is this an odd form of Entomobrya albocincta? It seems very stripey!
Thrilled to see a Yellow-legged Clearwing 'in the wild' today, a female apparently egg-laying into this small tree stump (which I assume must have been an oak). Got great views of it, but made an appallingly clumsy attempt at a photo and this is all I have 🙄 #TeamMoth
June 10, 2025 at 9:34 PM
Thrilled to see a Yellow-legged Clearwing 'in the wild' today, a female apparently egg-laying into this small tree stump (which I assume must have been an oak). Got great views of it, but made an appallingly clumsy attempt at a photo and this is all I have 🙄 #TeamMoth
Love among the geraniums - Chelostoma campanularum (Small Scissor Bee) and Stenurella melanura (Black-striped Longhorn Beetle) on what I think is a garden variety of Geranium versicolor (Pencilled Geranium). There were loads of insects visiting these flowers today 😃
June 9, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Love among the geraniums - Chelostoma campanularum (Small Scissor Bee) and Stenurella melanura (Black-striped Longhorn Beetle) on what I think is a garden variety of Geranium versicolor (Pencilled Geranium). There were loads of insects visiting these flowers today 😃
The first adult grasshopper I've seen this year - Common Field Grasshopper in the Chilterns today 🦗
June 8, 2025 at 6:34 PM
The first adult grasshopper I've seen this year - Common Field Grasshopper in the Chilterns today 🦗
A selection of swift moths from trapping on a Chilterns farm Thurs night: Map-winged Swift (top left, a moth I've not seen since 1997!), an unusual white form of Common Swift, and a female Ghost Moth (top right)
June 7, 2025 at 10:22 AM
A selection of swift moths from trapping on a Chilterns farm Thurs night: Map-winged Swift (top left, a moth I've not seen since 1997!), an unusual white form of Common Swift, and a female Ghost Moth (top right)
A nonconformist upwards-facing Downlooker Snipefly 😂 @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social
May 21, 2025 at 10:07 PM
A nonconformist upwards-facing Downlooker Snipefly 😂 @uk-soldierflies.bsky.social
Hi @geoffwilkinson.bsky.social does this look okay for eggs of Parasyrphus nigritarsis among the Dock Leaf Beetle eggs? From the @dipteristsforum.bsky.social meeting in Derbyshire - will iRecord.
May 21, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Hi @geoffwilkinson.bsky.social does this look okay for eggs of Parasyrphus nigritarsis among the Dock Leaf Beetle eggs? From the @dipteristsforum.bsky.social meeting in Derbyshire - will iRecord.
A spectacular display of tadpoles at Lightwood @derbyswildlife.bsky.social reserve today, during the @dipteristsforum.bsky.social field trip 😀 🐸
May 18, 2025 at 4:27 PM
A spectacular display of tadpoles at Lightwood @derbyswildlife.bsky.social reserve today, during the @dipteristsforum.bsky.social field trip 😀 🐸
Enjoyable day with @dipteristsforum.bsky.social in Derbyshire looking for flies - we found one or two 😃 these are dance flies (Empididae) doing their thing 🕺 💃
May 17, 2025 at 5:45 PM
Enjoyable day with @dipteristsforum.bsky.social in Derbyshire looking for flies - we found one or two 😃 these are dance flies (Empididae) doing their thing 🕺 💃
Turned over a Lime tree leaf and found an unexpected item: a mayfly, Ephemera vulgata. I think this is a subadult, and will shed its skin one more time, ending up with even longer legs.
May 16, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Turned over a Lime tree leaf and found an unexpected item: a mayfly, Ephemera vulgata. I think this is a subadult, and will shed its skin one more time, ending up with even longer legs.
I would say that female O. nobilis is a brighter, more metallic green, and has the elytra narrowing towards the tip, so that they are more widely separated on the midline. (O. virescens is similar to O. lurida but I've never found virescens, it is more frequent in the north.)
May 8, 2025 at 10:18 PM
I would say that female O. nobilis is a brighter, more metallic green, and has the elytra narrowing towards the tip, so that they are more widely separated on the midline. (O. virescens is similar to O. lurida but I've never found virescens, it is more frequent in the north.)
Just a couple of insects on today's @pomscheme.bsky.social FIT Count, on buttercup, including a very shiny beetle Malachius bipustulatus (photo taken after count finished). The bee didn't turn up until the count was over 😞 and the Small Yellow Underwing moth was nearby - just caught it taking off 😀
May 7, 2025 at 8:57 PM
Just a couple of insects on today's @pomscheme.bsky.social FIT Count, on buttercup, including a very shiny beetle Malachius bipustulatus (photo taken after count finished). The bee didn't turn up until the count was over 😞 and the Small Yellow Underwing moth was nearby - just caught it taking off 😀