First Damselflies and Other Garden Inverts

First Large Red Damselflies of the year (April 13th same early date as 2020) plus a host of other insects and spiders active in yesterday warm temperatures. The buttercups are just coming out in the meadow area so lots of photographic opportunities, including favourite hoverflies (Melanostoma mellinum, Platycheirus manicatus, Mythropa florea and Pipiza noctiluca) and lots of bug, bee and spider species!

Toft Invertebrates (1)

The insects are certainly getting active now with lots of different species of flies and plant bugs in the garden so I have quite a task to get them all identified and the species catalogued for my Toft list and recorded on i-record.

Garden Insects etc as 'Autumn' Starts

Most of my rose bushes, especially the wild dog rose shoots, are full of Sawfly larvae now able to thrive as the various tits and other small birds have fledged. Here two different species. Yesterday was a mix of sun and showers gradually getting warmer throughout the day - ideal for insect hunting and for cleaning mouthparts as this Rhingia campestris shows - amazing how it can fold that back into the rostrum. Still trying to get that 'perfect' flower spider image

Garden Life Between the Showers

We had some very heavy showers yesterday but in between these the insects and spiders were active. Here a sample of what is around in the garden at the moment.