Trumpington Meadow Insects April 9th

A few insects from yesterday's visit to the meadow at Byron's Pool Car Park in Trumpington.; ID sheet is at the end. It is always a delight and challenge to photograph the ruby-tailed wasps (Chrysis ignata) a parasitoid of Red Mason Bees which are nesting in some rotten tree trunks. Two very small ladybirds were found, a very small weevil and four species of Shield Bug.

Unexpected Find in the Garden

Photographed this ladybird during my morning patrol of the garden presuming it was a rather small 7-spot but when I downloaded the photo, it is clearly a different species, which I had no idea existed! - the Adonis' Ladybird, Hippodamia variegata - much smaller than the 7-spot and with different thorax markings.  Also surprised to find that two of the leaf bugs were new species for the garden - genus Nysius with species names using their host plants (see ID sheet at end).

Shieldbugs etc from RSPB Sandy

This is the final set of images from our trip to RSPB Sandy on Wednesday featuring Green Shieldbugs from the tiny 1st instar nymph to 4th stage instars, Stenotus bug, Hairy Shieldbugs and the Red-legged Forest Bug and several other photogenic species. Identifications in final image

More Garden Species

Lots of insects in the garden at the moment as you would expect with the hot dry weather. Here are some species from 2 days ago including very fine Long-horned beetle, three species of ladybird (Harlequins are spotless when they emerge I think). IDs are on the final image sheet. 

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!