Buglife in Toft Garden

The warmish but very humid weather over the last few days has brought out a wonderful selection of weird bugs both in the scientific use of the word (the Red Bug first and later stages, Hairy Bug) and wider for all the rest of my tiny friends. Great to see two species of Weevils on the Hollyhocks, and plenty of interesting flies around the pond and on the daisies with bees and the Ornate-Tailed Digger Wasp. 

Juniper Hall Final Morning

 A bit out of sequence but this post completes the record of what we photographed on the RPSNature Residential Weekend at Juniper Hall in Surrey and a very handsome collection of insects they are either from the moth traps of the vegetation in that area..

Close-up Photography Hardwick Wood

I was a bit late to capture the beautiful frost this morning which rapidly melted in the sunshine but the latter allowed some detailed and colourful close-ups of mosses, lichens and fungi in Hardwick Woods. The birds obviously thought spring might be on the way with Mistle Thrush, Woodpeckers, Nuthatch, and Tits all singing and even a Tawny Owl decided to add to the woodland sound track.

 

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.