A few of the butterflies and other invertebrates photographed during the last week at Trumpington Meadows to compare with future years. Very few butterflies on our last transect - will be interesting to see if the numbers will increase after the recent rain. Clouded Yellows and Painted Ladies still on the wing but difficult to get a good photograph!
Other than a few green stinging nettles nestled in the hedgerows, everywhere is dry and brown as in other reserves, so we were not expecting and did not find large numbers of Butterflies on our weekly transect. Small Coppers, Small Heaths, Small Whites, Brown Argus and Common Blues were the only species present in any numbers. I photographed a single Green-veined White and a Hummingbird hawkmoth egg laying plus a couple of Wasp Spiders.
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.
I visited Trumpington Meadows on Monday on a cool cloudy day so no high expectations of insect activity but some interesting finds in the woodland areas and great to see cowslips already in full bloom in places. Usual ID sheet at end - the beetle larva keyed out as a Rose Chafer but will need to check this one - found in nearby site so possible.
