The sedums were covered in creatures today. The butterflies are nice and all but I spotted a tiny blood bee too. They're kleptoparasitic and lay their eggs in the nests of ground-nesting solitary bees. Compare the scale of it next to a flower to the photo of the drone fly below and you can get an idea of how tiny they are.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
This is probably one of the bees that the blood bee is targeting for its kleptoparasitism. Some kind of furrow bee but not one that's identifiable from photos sadly. Bumblebee worker for scale. The bumblebee just steamrollered right over the top of it.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
A new hoverfly in the garden today; the Pale knobbed didea. I couldn't quite get close enough to get a clear pic of its pale knob. I like the angry face pattern though.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
This is an odd one. Same family as the swollen thighed flower beetles but not many records in the UK. This 2017 blog says there had been just 65 records in Wales at that point and I can only see 6 record since then https://earthstar.blog/2017/03/20/first-beetle-of-the-year/
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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