A few from the garden - no insects or spiders

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davholla

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David
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A centipede
CentipedeEF7A9546 by davholla2002, on Flickr
Centipede at 2.0 Magnification about 12mm long.

A woodlouse, 3.0 Magnification 2.6 mm, "Androniscus dentiger,"
WoodlouseEF7A9553 by davholla2002, on Flickr

Centipede and Millipede together
EF7A6932cousins by davholla2002, on Flickr
1.0Mag Centipede 13mm Millipede 15mm
Not a brilliant photo but good to compare which is which

The same again but closer
EF7A6942Cousinsv2 by davholla2002, on Flickr

Close up of the Millipede
EF7A9651Millipede by davholla2002, on Flickr

Millipede 1.5 Mag in the photo about 11mm long
 
sandboxmagician said:
I quite like the colours of the centipede and woodlouse. How did you catch the centipede/millipede?
I've only seen them under bits of wood and they move too fast for me. :(
Click to expand...

Thanks for that, I hope this answer is not too long

I have lots of plants in pots and to stop them being water logged I am doing the following :-
1) Remove the plant from the planter
2) Take the planter off the soil- put anything interesting into a small white plastic container (, ideally something like I made in this thread would have been better but it broke and I haven't made a new one yet
https://www.talkphotography.co.uk/t...ls-for-macro-photography.632694/#post-7553455)
Most of the various creatures were running around on the pot (I have loads of photos in this series, this was the most interesting so far EF7A9615Beetlelarva by davholla2002, on Flickr
although I have more to process)
3) Photograph them - you need at least 50 to get a few good ones as they move round all the time.
4) Give the creatures a few days to move from the upturned planter
5) Put it back, put gravel on it and put the plant back and hopefully the roses and gooseberries in the soil will do well.

The only problem is that if I ever move house, this will make the process a lot harder but sadly I can't afford to move (stamp duty etc but that is not for this type of discussion board).

I put newspaper round my apple trees to suppress weeds (it looks hideous, the wife and my parents hate it) and I can often find quite interesting centipedes (almost never millipedes there).
Including this very small one EF7A8764babycentipede by davholla2002, on Flickr

The trick I think is to have something to take them in (any good suggestions?) and lots photos.
For millipedes you want a log pile which sadly I don't have space for.
 
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sandboxmagician said:
I quite like the colours of the centipede and woodlouse. How did you catch the centipede/millipede?
I've only seen them under bits of wood and they move too fast for me. :(
Click to expand...

Find some that are not moving - if you turn things over at this time of year you may find some don't move. Flash helps freeze minor movements in antennae etc
 
A nice set there, The louse is super.
 
ChrisA said:
Find some that are not moving - if you turn things over at this time of year you may find some don't move. Flash helps freeze minor movements in antennae etc
Click to expand...
I forgot to mention flash. In my experience millipedes are easier to photograph but there are lot more centipedes or they easier to find (in my garden anyway).
 
GardenersHelper said:
Very interesting information David, and good photos too. Is there a good reference book or online resource about woodlice, and/or a good site for getting them identified?

I've never seen a transparent one; that looks really good. Ours our mainly plain grey.
Click to expand...
Thank you, this is a good woodlouse book
http://www.field-studies-council.or...y-to-the-woodlice-of-britain-and-ireland.aspx

Sadly I have lost my copy, hopefully I can find it when I have some time. This is a good website
http://www.bmig.org.uk/page/identification

If you are a member of BENHS it is free to join and BENHS is worth joining if you are interested in insects. There is also a field studies guide which has the 9 commonest species, saying that I can only identify 2 without a guide, the trick for the others (Androniscus dentiger is a little pink and the ant woodlouse is white and lives with ants) is to take a photo below as well.
 
davholla said:
Thank you, this is a good woodlouse book
http://www.field-studies-council.or...y-to-the-woodlice-of-britain-and-ireland.aspx

Sadly I have lost my copy, hopefully I can find it when I have some time. This is a good website
http://www.bmig.org.uk/page/identification

If you are a member of BENHS it is free to join and BENHS is worth joining if you are interested in insects. There is also a field studies guide which has the 9 commonest species, saying that I can only identify 2 without a guide, the trick for the others (Androniscus dentiger is a little pink and the ant woodlouse is white and lives with ants) is to take a photo below as well.
Click to expand...

That is really helpful. Thank you. I have ordered the book (I have a number of their fold-out guides. I really should refer to them more often.) I will have a look around the BMIG and BENHS sites, and also the Dipterist forum.
 
If you have the time and interest they do run lots of events, I would strongly suggest joining them.
 
davholla said:
If you have the time and interest they do run lots of events, I would strongly suggest joining them.
Click to expand...


The Woodlice book is really good David, thanks. I also came across a reference at the Dipterist forum to Flies of the British Isles, Colyer & Hammond, 1951, which apparently is still the best book on the subject. It is very informative and has beautiful illustrations.
 
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