Venus Pool - female Long-winged Conehead

Another day, another Conehead and I haven't even been searching for them, they just seem to turn up!! The was another nymph Long-winged Conehead but this time a female brandishing an amazing ovipositor! Found along the path adjacent to the sand quarry...

This was to be the briefest of encounters as she hopped into the dense vegetation next to the fence and was lost to view!

Venus Pool - Long-winged Conehead No2

Yet another male nymph Long-winged Conehead, this time off the path in the arable field, near to the Oak tree. This photo, first of three demonstrates just how long the antennae are!

A couple of dorsal views...

Followed by a long hop and change of scenery!

The final perch, before I lost him, by far the most photogenic...

Good things come in threes, where;s the next one?

Venus Pool - Long-winged Conehead

I'm enjoying a spell of 'insects'. I always give the local Odonata a few sessions during July and August but general insects give you a sense of something new EVERY time! Having got usd to identifying all the VP Grasshoppers, Dave Chapman chanced upon a new Cricket, green with a very dark almost black back on the Causeway. Checking and comparing with images on the web, this looks to be a nymph male Long-winged Conehead?

It's so easy to crop those antennae!

But these are deliberate, to get a closer look...

A change of angle coming up!

The darkly coloured back and just look at those legs!

 

Certainly not common throughout the county but occurs in rough grassland of which there is plenty but the Venus Pool tetrad seems to be the most westerly site for records!?