Spring is Progressing with Damselfly Pairing and Painted Lady

The Jumping Spiders have really thrived in the hot dry weather and whenever I am weeding, whether at ground level or, as here, in the currant bushes, one of them is eyeing me up. Fortunately he caught a leaf hopper soon after this. First Painted Lady of the season and the Red Damselflies and Azure Damsels are paired up and laying in the pond. The Weevil is exquisite in the detail for a very very small beetle - I haven't yet found a suitable match. 

Latest Toft Invertebrates

With warm and relatively still conditions, there were lots of species to photograph in the garden yesterday. My favourite images are of the male Jumping Spider males found wandering across one of the flower beds.

Inverts Emerge from Winter Hibernation

As the temperature climbed to 19 degrees insects and spiders emerged from the vegetation. Gwynne's Bee is always one of the first to be recorded and please to see a Zebra Jumping spider holding the usual territory on the summerhouse wall

 

Garden Spiders etc

 Lots of Spiders in the garden yesterday including Xysticus cristatus, Jumping spider Salticus scenicus, Cucumber spider, Labyrinth Spider and nursery Spider. Also photographed Dark Bush Cricket, Wasp Beetle and Spectacle Moth