Spiders Rule Ok in Garden Jungle

Catching up on the garden species - not so many new ones now but plenty of action with large numbers of spiders (especially Flower Spiders) happy in the hot conditions. ID sheet at end

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.

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.

Paxton Photogroup: Island Pit Path

A walk along a track through long grass produced quite a variety of species. It was too hot for a formal session but I suggested the group looked for subjects where the backgrounds were far enough away to not distract as with the Hairy Shieldbug about to take off or where they added to the scene as with the Brown Argus. The Hairy Bug is one of those 'nearly' shots - great action shot but the front of head is not sharp. Crickets are always difficult to photograph as deep in the vegetation. Amused to find a very large Wasp Spider on the path  and a minute Zebra Spider (back at the Centre). ID sheet at end.

 

Catch-Up on Garden Species

 A few new yearly arrivals in the garden like this attractive Bishop's Mitre Bug and Tortoise Beetle and a few that I haven't seen before or probably haven't manage to photograph eg the minute bug, an Orius species, and the two very small flies,  Phasia species. ID sheet at end - some provisional!! The great thing about living in a temperate zone is the progression of insects (with their foodplants etc) through spring to autumn.