Unusually Warm Day Encourages Garden Minilife

Unusually warm today - 18degrees at midday with very little wind brought out  a lot of insects, spiders etc including this Beetle Larva, Harlequin ladybird and various other insects. Spiders were also on the move and I think the white 'mushrooms' are spiders egg sacs. Even a small Geometrid caterpillar feeding on the Knapweed.

 

Garden Species 17th September

Raining for most of the day on and off but also a bright interval or two when I ventured out with my camera to see what insects were active. As usual, lots of plant bugs but also a Pine Ladybird and several other species (ID sheet at end)

Paxton West Scrub Survey

A few images and full ID sheets from our survey of West Scrub at Paxton. My favourite (not for its sharpness or exposure!) is this Mangora spider and its incredibly even and intricate web unlike the Garden Spider's more random one. I can see a project on spider web construction commencing this autumn.

Bugs Galore

Yesterday's warm moist air brought a lot of the insects to surface including a very large number of different species of plant-sucking bugs. This Mullein seed head turned out to be the equivalent of a high-rise building in a densely populated city area with at least eight Nereis bugs in the frame with the Corizus bug. Using a macro lens or a hand-held magnifying lens, it is possible to distinguish some of the very similar looking species as in image 3 and 4. The Lacewing larva and Stenocranus plant hopper are two of my favourites of the session along with the last image - a Hornet taking a wasp from ivy flowers. Id sheet at end.

The Next Generation in the Garden

The garden has lots of caterpillars and nymphal plant bugs and minute spiders as the next generations begin. Calophasia lunula, the Toadflax Brocade moth, is a recent immigrant to the UK but is now very widely spread - we have a good population every year, a very attractively patterned caterpillar. Plant bug nymphal stages are difficult to tell apart but generally they are found on the same plants as the adults which helps!! The garden has dozens of small flower spiders with different colours and pattern.