Toft Garden Spiders

 I am a bit behind identifying the various mini-wildlife in the garden, so these spiders were from a warm day last week. No certainty on species as very difficult without capturing and dissecting various parts but hopefully the genus in each case is ok

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!!

Latest Toft Invertebrates

With warm and relatively still conditions, there were lots of species to photograph in the garden yesterday. My favourite images are of the male Jumping Spider males found wandering across one of the flower beds.

More Species in the Garden

 A very humid and warm day - fewer insects than I expected but great to see the first Dark Bush Cricket babies as well as a Tortoise Beetle etc

More Garden Arrivals

The midday sunshine brought out a few more flies, bees etc in the garden.

Cucumber Spider

This little spider was hiding in one of the seed heads that I cut down in the garden and made a perfect model to try out the 90mm Macro lens. Image 2 is a photostacked image, others are single shots. The only other 'model' I found was a Blowfly and demonstrates the incredible sharpness of the lens.