I tried to work out which dragonfly this is (on my embarrassingly knackered hollyhock leaf) but couldn't, any ideas? Comma Not the best pic in the world but it reminds me why I grow this "monstrosity" as my husband calls it. It just grew a bit bigger this year than I expected 😬
I had a weird wasp on the eryngium yesterday. I tthink we have narrowed it down to a european tube wasp or potter wasp. Ancistrocerus gazella. If anyone has any better ideas please shout. All the photos are of the same wasp, I was chasing it round the flower bed, it seemed to like the eryngium most.
Niece and family came to lunch today. Great nephew found this huge caterpillar on the wall of my French house near the Jasmine. I think it is a Death's head hawkmoth. Can anyone confirm please? Dordogne, SW France.
Photo taken with my phone, I only have a small camera and its battery had run out. There are some wonderful photos on this thread, I've just looked back over 30 pages. Loved @NormandyLiz's breakfast photo!
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
That catepillar is beautiful, @Busy-Lizzie! A treat to see even a photo of it.
Sadly no better idea on the wasp. It's one of the reasons I love insects, there are just so many of them that we dismiss as 'a wasp' or 'a fly', but when you look closely they are amazing and so many different species.
I had a weird wasp on the eryngium yesterday. I tthink we have narrowed it down to a european tube wasp or potter wasp. Ancistrocerus gazella. If anyone has any better ideas please shout. All the photos are of the same wasp, I was chasing it round the flower bed, it seemed to like the eryngium most.
I think it is the fly Conops flavipes, a wasp mimic which is a parasite of bees.
I just saw a hummingbird hawkmoth the first time for about twenty five years. It was near abElia and fuchsia, also centranthus further away.
I have only ever had a few of them in my garden but they were always on Abelia.
I'm so lucky to have a resident one (or more). They love the abelia, buddleja and verbena. They're so used to me with the camera they'll let me get really close. A real treat each time.
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Comma
Not the best pic in the world but it reminds me why I grow this "monstrosity" as my husband calls it. It just grew a bit bigger this year than I expected 😬
Photo taken with my phone, I only have a small camera and its battery had run out. There are some wonderful photos on this thread, I've just looked back over 30 pages.
Loved @NormandyLiz's breakfast photo!
Sadly no better idea on the wasp. It's one of the reasons I love insects, there are just so many of them that we dismiss as 'a wasp' or 'a fly', but when you look closely they are amazing and so many different species.
https://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/conops-flavipes