Wolves Wild

This fly was sharing the fence post with the harlequin ladybirds whose picture was posted a couple of days ago.

So was this one.

The white flecks or warts on the cap of this toadstool are the remnants of a veil which surrounds the mushroom as it pushes up through the soil.

Rain will wash them off, leaving a pure red cap, as here. The yellow marking near the apex is where something has begun to nibble at the fungus.

Further rain, especially heavy rain, will also begin to leach away the bright red colour, leaving oranges or yellows. Such can be seen in this rather bedraggled specimen.

Most of the seeds of this plant have now dried and been scattered.

Other nearby hogweeds are still showing flowers, although they are getting rather straggly

In shape, it looks like a tiny, squashed cup, without any visible stem.
Grows on open soil under trees.

These are new specimens. Very soon, they become paler on the outer surface, and more and more resemble fragments of discarded orange peel to a casual glance – a process which has gone a little further along in the specimens below.

The classic toadstool of fairy story illustrators.

Don’t try at home to test out its hallucinogenic properties: the toxic chemicals which cause this effect are as likely to give some very unpleasant, and just possibly fatal, symptoms.

In Britain, this mushroom is always found close to birch trees.

Not an apple, but a mutant leaf forming the cradle for the larva of a gall wasp.

The hole is where the larva eventually came out.