Bees struggle to find flowers because of air pollution

[guerney]

Bees struggle to find flowers because of air pollution
A new study has found that air pollution is preventing pollinators finding flowers because it degrades the scent.

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2023/bees-struggle-to-find-flowers-because-of-air-pollution

 

[flecc]

Bees struggle to find flowers because of air pollution
A new study has found that air pollution is preventing pollinators finding flowers because it degrades the scent.

https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2023/bees-struggle-to-find-flowers-because-of-air-pollution

Birmingham trying to deflect attention from their bankrupt state? These last Friday and Wednesday don't seem to be having any problem in my London pollution hotspot:

Bombus hortorum and Bombus pascuorum Bumblebees, Epistrophe diaphana Hoverfly and Plume Moth, Ambliptilia acanthadactyla:

 

[guerney]

Lovely photos! I can see bee's knees. Those must be particularly smelly flowers.

Is this beast deadly, and can I use it to destroy my enemies? Found it scuttling over my kitchen floor just now. Conveniently, it stopped when I switched the light on, so I was able to catch and release this Unidentified Spidery Object back into the wilds directly outside my kitchen.

 

[soundwave]

its a spider robot and helicopter

 

[guerney]

 

[guerney]

Birmingham trying to deflect attention from their bankrupt state?

Bloody Oracle...

Largest local government body in Europe goes under amid Oracle disaster
Authority effectively bankrupt as ERP car crash adds to equal pay liability

Birmingham City Council goes under after Oracle disaster

Authority effectively bankrupt as ERP car crash adds to equal pay liability

www.theregister.com

 

[soundwave]

councils are corporatizations same as government. we have been sold out!

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/coporatization.asp#:~:text=Corporatization%20refers%20to%20the%20restructuring,directors%2C%20management%2C%20and%20shareholders

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[flecc]

Lovely photos! I can see bee's knees. Those must be particularly smelly flowers.

Is this beast deadly, and can I use it to destroy my enemies? Found it scuttling over my kitchen floor just now. Conveniently, it stopped when I switched the light on, so I was able to catch and release this Unidentified Spidery Object back into the wilds directly outside my kitchen.


View attachment 53939

It's a Mouse Spider, Scotophaeus blackwalli, completely harmless to us. It gets its name from the grey coloured abdomen which is covered in tiny hairs and resembles mouse fur. In southern Britain they are found in gardens and houses, In the north they are found mainly indoors. It doesn't spin a web, instead it wanders about in search of prey - usually at night. It is an ambush predator that feeds on small insects.
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[guerney]

It was certainly fast and agile, hard to trap. A similar looking but much bigger spider scuttled off behind a bookcase just now, about three times the size. I may prime my flash for readiness:

 

[guerney]

They all look the same to me. Just now:

 

[guerney]

I swear it likes to pose.

 

[guerney]

Non-poisonous "Amaurobius similis, Lace Web Spider" I think. Whew.

People pay me to photograph big fat people objects and buildings etc. therefore I only have lenses for those scenarios. Using my closest focusing 24mm lens and a very bright hooded Speedlite 580EX flash... but to get really sharp shorts of it's entire body, I'd need to buy that macro I've been meaning to and focus stack. Indoor spiders are so infrequent, it probably isn't worth the trouble.

Boy am I glad I'm no insect fancier. It'd get expensive all over again.