Bees etc Trumpington Meadows

Although cooler than previous couple of days, yesterday's sunshine did encourage quite a few mining bees to be on the wing and feeding on the dandelions at Trumpington Meadows. A lot of photos I haven't been able to identify but the Lasioglossum laevigatum along with Andrena flavipes and Andrena haemorrhoa were confirmed. Lots of Bee Flies and Eristalis pertinax hoverflies around.

Unexpected Find in the Garden

Photographed this ladybird during my morning patrol of the garden presuming it was a rather small 7-spot but when I downloaded the photo, it is clearly a different species, which I had no idea existed! - the Adonis' Ladybird, Hippodamia variegata - much smaller than the 7-spot and with different thorax markings.  Also surprised to find that two of the leaf bugs were new species for the garden - genus Nysius with species names using their host plants (see ID sheet at end).

An Umbel Life

For the last three days, a large Hogweed flower in the garden has been providing food for a very large population of hoverflies, wasps and beetles, some very small like this Eumerus hoverfly treading on an even smaller Carpet beetle. (IDs on final image).

Insects on Flowers at RSPB Frampton Marshes

It was a warm and sunny day for our visit to RSPB Frampton on Wednesday, a bit breezy for macro but there are several paths that I knew from previous visits would be sheltered and these proved excellent for insects. Here a selection of insects visiting flowers, predominately Dog Rose and Hogweed , starting with two very small but distinctive wetland Hoverflies and a Soldier fly.