More Garden Minibeasts

Quite a few more sessions clearing the paths in the garden and recording any minibeasts taking shelter there. Not sure how many are new species for the list (IDs at end) but I haven't recorded the striking striped Hemipteran nymph (Nysius spp) before. Mainly small spiders but also one large beautifully marked snail.

 

Fossil Snails

These are very small fossil snails that I have photographed and processed for Richard Preece. The scale is 2mm in length so you can see the challenge. They were done on a lightbox with LED lights each side to give pretty even illumination. They are mainly focus stacks. Their significance I believe is because they are related species found in England and Scandinavia supporting the belief that until the middle Pleistocene, Britain was a peninsula off Europe, connected across the Straits of Dover.

Snail Survey 2 Paxton Pits

On Saturday, Richard kindly undertook a second survey of the snail species at Paxton Pits. We intended to do both aquatic and land species including slugs but the recent hot dry weather resulted in an absence of the latter. Here are a few from Sailing Lake area, Rory's Wood and West Scrub starting with a very obliging Caddis Fly larva that has made its case out of a great variety of snail shells. (All photographed at the time so natural light etc and some are only a few mm long!)

Activity After the Rain

As well as the expected snail activity, there were quite a few insects that became active once the rain had eased off. The Bee Grabber fly was waiting patiently near the comfrey flowers for a passing Bumble Bee to jump onto and get taken back to the bee nest where it will lay its eggs. The larvae then consume the bee larvae food and the larvae themselves. A new plant bug Dicyphus bolivari? and some strange antics by the Long-Jawed Orb Spider - need another opinion on what is going on - ? shed skin or the end of a brief encounter with a male!!

Wider Angle Macro

 As my 60mm macro stopped focusing suddenly and seems to be permanently, I tried my 18-45 mm lens with the Raynox close-up filter. Here a few examples of what is still active in my Cambridge garden. Most taken at the 45mm end but the Cricket and Flower spider were at the 18mm end.

Garden Snails

Making a start on identifying the snails in the garden with these species that were on the move yesterday morning after a damp night.