Insects in the Rain

 With the wet and cooler conditions, most of the insects were resting up on or under leaves or in the grass during the last few days just coming out with the sun. Here a selection - most identified!

Toft Invertebrates (2)

Here are yesterday's species. First the bees - Tawny Mining Bee (male), Early Bumble Bee and Hairy footed Bee (female); then the Hoverflies including a Platycheirus albimanus in the jaws of a Flower Spider, several other fly species including the Bee Fly and finishing with Box Moth caterpillars and my first record of a Caddis fly larva from my pond.

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.

First Wildlife Survey in Toft 2024

The present warm temperatures (up to 18 degrees yesterday) have certainly woken up the insects in Toft. Athough the two hoverflies are the same as last year around this time - Episyrphus balteatus and Eristalis tenax - there were lots of different Diptera species, a new bug to me - the Jumping Nettle louse, lots of Ladybirds including another new species, the Pine Ladybird, an interesting Door Snail, three species of spider, and four Hymenoptera including the expected Early Bumblebee - Bombus  pratorum.