The Flickr Mjällådalen Image Generatr

Getting a good shot is always satisfying, but I won't lie and deny that this "collecting" species is part of the fun.

Here, I managed to photograph two new species for me in a single shot. The black and yellow one is a flower lonhorn known as Judolia sexmaculata) which doesn't have a common English name. And the blue one is a
Gaurotes virginea, also without a common English name.

This is from a 2024 visit to the Mjällådalen nature reserve somewhat near Härnösand, Sweden.

Say hello to a green-socks peacock beetle (Elaphrus riparius). This species is normally beautifully green (like so: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53041702988/) but this is a really cool - and really red - colour morph.

I found these last summer together with my son in the Mjällådalen Nature Reserve near Härnösand, Sweden, and for this year's first visit, we found even more of them.

These are quite small at around 7 mm / .27" but are quite fast so shooting them isn't that easy.

For a rundown on how we team up to get the photos (plus a photo of him in action on location), have a look here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53837547506/

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53837539276/

Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53889458761/

The scientific name for this nice and fairly large longhorn beetle is Lepturobosca virens. It lacks an English name, but translating the Swedish one (grön blombock) gives us "green flower longhorn". This particular one was muching pollen on a meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria).

When I closed in there were a whole bunch of flies, including several hoverflies around it, but they all soon left, leaving the beetle alone in front of the lens.

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53114285445/

Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53608248040/

Part 3 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53788329178/

Part 4 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54272519647/

A shot of my extremely useful assistant in the process of helping me herd a peacock beetle on the riverbank in the Mjällådalen Nature Reserve near Härnösand, Sweden - this is my son, Daniel.

We really got the process figured out by now. When we spot one of these tiny beetles (around 7 mm / .27") running around between the stones, Daniel drops and puts his hands around it to create a barrier so it can't run away. Then we wait like ten or twenty seconds for it to calm down enough to at least make the eventual pause for few seconds and not just constantly zip around.

After that, I get in close with the camera and try and get some shots - which is a bit difficult with a moving subject at a magnification of around 3:1. Meanwhile, Daniel keeps an eye out if the beetle sneaks out of his hands at which point we move to the new spot.

If you zoom in on this one, you can actually see the tiny beetle right next to Daniel's thumbs.

Part 1 shows the entire herder and not just the hands here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53837547506/

One of the finished shots of a copper peacock beetle (Elaphrus cupreus) can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54443022411/

Looking at the blue spots on the elytra of this copper peacock beetle (Elaphrus cupreus), you have to think the peacock part is quite fitting. The title says "Regular copper" - so what is regular about it? Well, not long after shooting this one in the Mjällådalen nature reserve near Härnösand, Sweden, I spotted a spectacularily green colour form of the same species.A good photo of that one can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53846782368/

These guys are small (~5 mm / .2") and fast runners so shooting them with the required high magnification isn't easy. Here, I had very nice help from my son who kept them in check while I tried to photograph them. A shot of that can be found here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54443269788/

When climbing up the river bank in the Mjällådalen nature reserve near Härnösand, Sweden, my son and I almost stepped on this small pearl-bordered fritillary (Boloria selene), known as the silver-bordered fritillary in North America.

It was cool with us though and stayed on top of its flower and allowed me to photograph it both with the wings up and down and we left it still sitting on the flower when we were done.

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53025049224/

Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53091069551/

Another one of the absolutely gorgeous green-socks peacock beetles (Elaphrus riparius) which run around (seriously running around) on the sand banks in the Mjällådalen nature reserve near Härnösand, Sweden.

Right here, me and my son had it temporarily confused which made it stay still for long enough to snap two shots of it and combine them into one with more depth of field. It did however not staty still enough fto allow me to let Zerene Stacker combine the shots so I had to manually combine them in Photoshop instead.

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53041702988/

Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53236860328/

Part 3 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53572443722/

Part 4 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53687715770/

Part 5 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54003331827/

A short clip of the location where I found this one here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53042074405/

There are six species of peacock beetles in Sweden and so far, I've managed to photograph two of them (plus a spectacular red form of this one) and I made a separate album so if you want about 45 shots of these little gems, please have a look here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/albums/72177720309780234

Here is a friendly young raft spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus) I met in the Mjällådalen nature reserve in August (of 2023).

As juveniles, these guys have greenish legs (like here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/52986368019/) but as adults, the legs darken into the same brown as the body (like here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/29583270096/)

This one appears to be somewhere in between.

For a shot of the same spider on my fingertip, please have a look here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53608128894/

This is a male bog hoverfly (Sericomyia silentis) sitting on a common yarrow (Achillea millefolium) in the Mjällådalen nature reserve near Härnösand, Sweden.

This species has pretty impressive compound eyes with oh so many facets - which is matched nicely by the flower. This, as "millefolium" tanslates into "a thousand flowers.

This tiny little piece of a copper is a ground beetle known as Bembidion litorale.

I found it while trying to photograph peacock beetles on sand banks in the river in the Mjällådalen nature reserve and unlike those, which seem to never stop running around, these guys are more chill and significantly easier to capure with the camera.

This tiny emerald on an alder leaf in the Mjällådalen nature reserve is a leaf beetle known as Plagiosterna aenea. It is very common and can be found in large numbers on many alder treese where both they and their larvae munch awway at the leaves.

With today (ok, in a couple of hours) being Valentines Day - I figured it was appropriate to post something with a heart - so here is a mirid bug known as Grypocoris sexguttatus which was flaunting a yellow heart on its back when I saw it in the Mjällådalen nature reserve in July (of 2024).

There are four species of scorpionflies in Sweden and you tell them apart by the patterns on the wings.

Most shots of these that I manage are from the top, but this female meadow scorpionfly (Panorpa vulgaris) turned around on the leaf and faced me which in my opinion made for a much more interesting angle.

Photo taken in the southern part of the Mjällådalen nature reserve, about 25 km / 15 mi west of Härnösand, Sweden.

This is a female of one of the droneflies, Eristalis, and I have convinced myself the exact species is orange-spined drone fly (Eristalis interrupta).

The intensely yellow back drop is, like so often, the flowers of a tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) and this was shot at 1.5:1 magnification in the south part of the Mjällådalen nature reserve near Härnösand, Sweden.

There are four species of tiger beetle in Sweden. The green tiger beetle (Cicindela campestris), the wood tiger beetle (C.sylvatica), the northern dune tiger beetle (C. hybrida) and the dune tiger beetle (C. maritima). The green and northern dune ones are fairly common while the wood one is more rare and the dune one is endangered.

So, since one of the strongest habitats in the country of the dune one is only about 25 km from my mother-in-law's place, me and my son went there to try and find one.

I chose a place just south of the Mjällådalen nature reserve where there is a sand pit where C. maritima has been reported in 1999, 2015, 2018 and 2020.

Shooting tiger beetles can be frustrating, they are fast runners with good vision and a propensity to fly five or ten meters when you try to get close. When we got there, we quite quickly located a tiger beetle and even managed to shoot it and when it took off, Daniel took off chasing it and pointed where it landed so I could have another attempt.

We came across about five of these guys (plus a green), but when I got home and processed the shots in Photoshop, these don't look like C. maritima, but rather C. sylvatica, the wood tiger beetle.

I have no idea if they were misidentified by the previous people or if there are C. maritima there as well or what, but I am still glad for these as these actually are the second set of shots I've managed of this particular species. Hopefully we can track down the remaining two species eventually.

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53847725151/

Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53966603263/

I also have an album with 75+ shots of tiger beetles here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/albums/72157719182564816/

When I write these descriptions, there is always some cool fact to mention about the bug - or the place where it was taken (in this case the Mjällådalen nature reserve), or the photograph. Here, there were several.

For starters, this photo was sverely overexposed because I underestimated how white the fallen tree trunk the fly is sitting (standing?) on was and set the flash power too high. Somehow this was possible to dial back in post so I got an acceptable shot. Secondly, it is always neat with robber flies and seing what prey they have caught. The one here has some sort of mosquito or midge.

But on top of that, this also happens to be a new species for me - a spring heath robberfly (Lasiopogon cinctus). Since this is the only one in not only it's genus in Sweden, but also in it's sub family - it becomes even better.

Here is a nice, but small (5.5 mm / .2") beetle called Bembidion litorale which I found on a sand bank in the Mjällån river running through the Mjällådalen nature reserve near Härnösand, Sweden.

It doesn't have a common English name but the Swedish name confused me a bit when I found it the first time the year before this. It's called "brokig spegellöpare" where "spegel" means mirror and is referencing the foure shiny squares on it's back which makes sense, but "brokig" means mottled and when you see the others I found (like here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53194027546/) it doesn't look very "mottled".

This one however had a decidedly more mottled look, right?

The scientific name for this nice and fairly large longhorn beetle is Lepturobosca virens. It lacks an English name, but translating the Swedish one gives (grön blombock) us "green flower longhorn". This particular one was muching pollen on a meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria).

When I closed in there were a whole bunch of flies, including several hoverflies around it, but they all soon left, leaving the beetle alone in front of the lens.

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53114285445/

Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53608248040/

The still green legs tell us this is a juveniile raft spider (Dolomedes fimbriatus) and I found it resting on the surface of a back water in the Mjällådalen Nature Reserve where it was cleaning one of its front legs.

As I began taking photos of it, the spider decided it was something better done with solid ground under one's feet and climbed up on top of a small pebble before continuing the cleaning process. Here it is the end of one of the pedipalps whis was getting the attention.

Part 1 shows a little more of the surroundings here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53839990870/

On a small logging road, me and Daniel (my son) found two of these wood tiger beetles (Cicindela sylvatica), also known as the heath tiger beetle.

They really aren't fans of having their portrait taken so getting my shots meant we had to combine some serious ninja sneaking and some excellent spotting and running by Daniel when they took off and flew five meters and landed somewhere else on the road.

These beetles are predators and hunt by running faster than most other bugs and grabbing their prey with those large mandibles.

On top of the impressive mandibles and the very fuzzy legs, I also look like they are riddled with RGB lighting like they are the beetle equivalent of a gaming PC.

Part 1 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/53917002544/

Part 2 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54080575174/

Part 3 here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/54172505329/