Wonderful wildlife

Self-taught amateur entomologist Sabina George has been snapping super pictures of the creatures you may or may not have noticed in residence on your plots. A keen insect photographer who spends winter recording finds on iRecord (a database for UK Flora & Fauna), Sabina is always looking for new sites to explore and KATA was only too willing to take up her offer of having a looksie at what goes on around us on a sometimes very small scale…

latest sightings

Odibourne Allotments:
Mining bees are very busy on sunny days and excavate nests leaving holes in sandy area. More hoverflies are appearing and the smaller, Platycheirus and Melanostoma species are easily overlooked as they feed at dandelions, forget-me-nots and Brunnera. The Common Green Shield bugs do not harm plants unless in very large numbers. The Asian ladybird has untidier spots than our native ladybird.

Spring Lane Allotments:
An inspection of leaves as well as flowers revealed four species of hoverflies. On a container a Yellow-barred Brindle moth rested while a black female Hairy Footed Flower bee feasted. A Peacock butterfly warmed in the sun and a Rove beetle explored a leaf. Marsh flies prefer a slug or snail meal. An Asian ladybird crawled onto my finger giving a good view of the white pronotum (cover of thorax), face and some mouth parts. As the Buff-tailed bumblebee cleaned its tongue  3 mites (marked with an X) cadged a lift to another nest. These mites are harmless to the bees.

All words courtesy of Sabina George. Thank you for visiting one of our sites, Sabina, and we hope you will visit and record what you find at our others.