Garden Species August 13th

We have a very large number of Flower Spiders hiding in various types of vegetation - all quite small at the moment but growing fast, along with Nursery Web and Garden Spiders. This first Flower Spider has taken over the prey, a Red Ant, from web of another species I think (pretty sure Misumena does not make webs). The last image, a Garden Spider has an interesting looking prey ?Shieldbug species - will need further investigation. The other photos are some of the garden's really small inhabitants like the Barklouse found on a daisy and the 22-spot Ladybird. ID sheet at end.

New Wasp Species for the Garden

Although  there are a lot of black and yellow wasp species, I am pretty sure this is Ancistrocerus gazella, commonest species in our part of England but new to the garden list. Lots of nymphal Shieldbugs - here the Woundwort Shieldbug and dozens of Flower spiders around the garden - they seem to like the pink flowers or, perhaps, they are more visible there. The Yellow Rod takes over from Knapweed as the most visited flowers in the garden.

Wet Insects at RSPB Sandy

We hoped for a fine sunny day to photograph solitary bees, dragonflies and butterflies in RSPB Sandy's grounds but had light rain most of the day. However, we found plenty of interesting subjects  covered with rain droplets, including this Common Wasp, Hairy Shieldbug and Green-eyed Flowerbee sleeping attached to a twig by its mandible.

River Ouse at Brampton

The intention was to hunt for Fritillaries and White Admirals etc in Brampton Wood but it was closed for Management tasks so we diverted to the River Ouse banks and spent an enjoyable morning hunting sheltered spots for Dragonflies etc. Here some of the captures - interesting that we identified our last dragonfly of the morning as a Skimmer in the field but the photo (image 1) clearly shows the dark patches at the base of the wing and tips (compare image 2).

 

Macro Practice at Paxton Pits

 Photographers are never satisfied with the weather - today was a bit to hot and breezy for our macrophotography session at Paxton Pits as the insects were sheltering from the sun or waving around on leaves. All the Damselfly species other than the Emeralds are now on the wing and we managed to find most species and also an obliging Hairy Dragonfly perched plus quite a few views in the air together with the occasional Green-eyed Hawker etc. Right at the end we came across a couple of unusual Shieldbugs - Eurydema ornata only appeared in the south of England in 1997 and seems to have abandoned its usual coastal preference.