Garden Fauna 16th July

A few insects etc showed themselves yesterday despite the cool wet conditions. There are lots of these small bees (Heriades truncorum Large-headed Resin Bee) on the Ragwort with the Cinnabar caterpillars and the Dark Bush crickets are now mature.

Insects in the Autumn Garden

Although the night-time temperatures dipped to near freezing the last two days, the sun has been warm and yesterday I recorded a large number of active insects including these very small Weevils on the hollyhocks, one of which appeared to be egg laying.

Mini Garden Invertebrates

An interest in invertebrates can be a serious impediment to any gardening activity. I started to cut down some of the dead plants in the garden but decided to shake them to dislodge any creatures before putting in the green waste bins - a mistake as an hour later I was still photogaphing the abundant spider, snail and other mini-life - some 10 species of spiders alone!!

Damselfly and Dragonfly Emergence Begins

Our first emergences from the pond yesterday with several Large Red Damselflies and two Four-spot Chasers. I wonder if we will get the 100 Dragonflies we managed last year. Garden is also full of Hairy Shield Bugs at the moment and Green Fly.

Aphids - Advantages of Cloning versus Sex

The Blackfly and Greenfly (Aphids) are abundant in the garden at the moment. I attempted focus stacking (first photo) some on a red campion stalk. The stacked photo is not that successful photographically as they are very shiny and moving and so the stacking has accentuated the reflections. However, it has shown their amazing biology well. In most colonies, all the aphids are female. Without males, no energy is expended finding mates, courting, and the laying and incubation of eggs. Parthenogenesis, the development of unfertilised eggs, enables female aphids to give birth to live young as soon as they are adult - you can see one emerging in the first photo. Some of the females in these clones will have wings to disperse the colony.
 Parthenogenesis  produces clones of individuals very rapidly and this is obviously an advantage but aphid colonies do not go on reproducing themselves indefinitely. At a certain time clonal reproduction ceases and  males and egg-laying females appear, mate and produce fertilised eggs. You can see a male (winged) on the rose bud greenfly colony

The last two days were very cold and overcast in Cambridgeshire and this Four-spotted Chaser emerged on Monday morning and was still in the same position on Tuesday until mid afternoon when the wind turned more southerly giving a bit of warmth. The irises are full of exuvia -6 or 7 so far this year.