New and Returning Garden Species

The cooler but still sunny weather yesterday was ideal for insect spotting in the garden. Here are photos of some of the more interesting species (plus ID sheets with rest). The Figwort Weevil is about 4mm and just looked like an insect dropping. Good to ID another bee species that is using the Hotels - the Orange-vented Mason Bee, and always happy when the first Speckled Bush Crickets appear with their striped socks. The spider has a very metallic sheen which appeared green or bluish depending on its position. Only small patches of Spindle Ermine caterpillar webs at the moment.

April Butterfly and Dragonfly Survey

 Today was our first Butterfly and Dragonfly survey of 2025 at Paxton but the cool weather meant sightings of the former were limited to a very few species and individuals though we did record a few Grizzled Skippers, along with Brown Argus, Orange tips etc. Only a handful of Damselflies mostly just emerged. There were a number of very curious (even ugly) bugs around including a Beetle - Platyrhinus resinosus Scarce Fungus Weevil which lives on the black knobbly fungus - Alfred cakes and a larva of a micromoth Coleophora pennella Bugloss case-bearer.

Life on Comfrey and Alkanet

The Alkanet and White Comfrey are in full bloom in the garden and provide home and food to a very large variety of species. Here are a few. The Rhingia rostrata has very impressive mouthparts for slurping up nectar!

Bugs, Bees, Beetle and Butterfly

As the cooler moist air arrived yesterday afternoon, a lot of insects became active especially various leaf bugs - some new to my list for the garden!!. Still lots of Bees and Wasp species plus a very small beetle, first Comma butterfly and a large number of Hoverflies!