Latest Batch of Garden Insects

I am still on a quest to record all the insects in my garden - sometimes interesting (!) photos of familiar species like these mating Sphaerophoria scripta and some new species like the bug Dicyphus epilobii.

Curioser and Curioser

Our monthly guided nature walk at Paxton Pits produced some very curious sightings, none more so than this Thistle Tortoise Beetle larva which is very spiny like its host plant. It carries around a pile of droppings and debris that it uses to disguise itself -  very small so difficult to get a better shot. First time I have recorded Beewolf Wasps at Paxton - they are nesting where the Early Colletes bees were active earlier in the year. We think it was a young Garden Warbler and certainly there were a couple of pairs of Crows with young in the newly mown hay fields

Art in the Garden

Sometimes my two major interests, Art and Nature, come together as with this red bug on part of an ornamental bird feeder that has corroded to some beautiful colours. The second image intrigued me until I realised that it is the result of an insect chewing through areas of the flower bud which is pleated much as we do to make paper cuts (eg paper doilies). Otherwise a few more gems from my garden including a Wolf Spider species with very newly hatched spiderlets on its back, male and female Large-headed Resin Bee plus one in the jaws of a Labyrinth Spider and Hummingbird hawkmoth eye - the species list will be very long by the end of this season.

My Garden: Interesting Moths, Bees etc

Great to see the Currant Clearwing back in the garden this year - I like the way the sheen on its tail plumes echoes the Anchusa flowers. It was joined by another relatively scarce moth the Orange Conch ,which was climbing up its foodplant, Ragwort, in the front lawn/meadow. Several new bees were also observed this last week - the Blue Mason Bee my favourite. Both Southern hawkers and Broad-bodied Chasers around the pond during the week.

Dorset - Cerne Abbas Butterflies and Moths

A walk up the Long Man Hill at Cerne Abbas produced all the target species  - Forester moth, Burnet moth, Grizzled and Dingy Skipper,  Marsh Fritillary, Common Blue and Adonis Blue. The first image of the Forester in quaking grass is one of my favourites of the holiday.