Fly of the Week # 1 The Bee Fly

The Bee fly Bombylius Major. This photo is from last year, though I`ve alredy seen a couple this spring. They can be seen hovering in front of flowers, steadying themselves by just resting their legs on the petals. Seen against the light the apparently sturdy beelike body turns out to be mostly an array of bottlebrush- style bristles around a rather weedy abdomen. All proboscis and trousers!

Mystery Jug

If anyone has any ideas about the origins of this jug I'd be interested to hear from them. 18cm high, glazed base incised with what l think is N5. It's got that slight iridescence in places I tend to associate, quite possibly wrongly with older slipware, and the decoration has a kind of North Devon look,though I can't find any exact parallels : the pattern is sprigged with a few minor incisions rather than cut through a complete covering of slip, as seems more usual.