Lunch Time Visitor

I never know what I am going to find in my kitchen. A couple of days ago it was:



a small beetle, a Lagria hirta. Photo taken with a cheap DooGee Note 58 Android phone. For just under £100 the phone was really excellent value, though unfortunately no longer available. BTW: I identified it using the Google photo search which I find to be quite useful from time to time.

Little and Large

First the microscopic object. A Tardigrade (water bear) I found in the moisture taken from a clump of moss, about 150 microns long (150 thousandths of a millimetre)



Second, a beasty quite a few (thousand) time larger:



A field cricket which ended up on my kitchen windowsill.

Wasp? No!

Whilst emptying some bits in one of the wheelie bins I noticed what, at first glance, I thought was a tiny wasp. It wasn't moving so I assumed it had recently died and collected it to put under my LCD Microscope. Read about that here
The wasp like insect was quite small at about 10mm long.



Oh-ho ... what is that extra part jutting out near the lower eye?



Let's turn the insect over and take a closer look ....



That looks to me like the type of proboscis used to puncture skin and have a free drink of my blood. Pretty sure that what I have here is a mosquito though so far I haven't been able to identify which species it is. Any ideas??

Entomobrya multifasciata

I went out to catch a couple of pill bugs / woodlice. I managed that but also captured this insect at the same time. I am 99% sure I have the identification correct by the colouring, markings and especially the U shaped marking at the rear end. Size - about 4mm long. I think it is a springtail. It certainly proved it could jump a couple of times. I am pleased with this video as I managed to film it without the lid on the container so nothing to distort the result.



Also I put the clips together using Wondershare Filmora 9. It produced a proper 1080HD result unlike iMovie which seemed to give 720 in spite of the original video resolution. Fancier titles as well!

I love the way the markings on the back of its head look like a face.

What kept it busy while I videoed? I had put a drop of Golden Syrup to interest a couple of ants earlier on. (Thanks for the hint Adrian). I had wiped most of it off but the insect found a thin smear on the bottom of the dish.