A bit warmer

We had a couple of weeks when the wind was blowing from the east, and I agree that it's "fit for neither man nor beast". I reckon nothing happened in wildlife terms during that period, so I'd say we are currently running about 4 weeks behind what I have come to expect on the patch. Now that we have reverted to the prevailing westerlies, we have to dodge the rain showers. Ho hum.

Now that Willow catkins have opened, a few insects have started to pollinate. This hoverfly is Parasyrphus punctulatus:

The hoverfly Parasyrphus punctulatus

Parasyrphus punctulatus is one of the earliest hoverflies to be found, although I rarely find it in large numbers. The main identification features are the semicircular yellow markings on the abdomen, which are strangely described in the standard reference as 'hemispherical'.

I have seen plenty of queen bumblebees searching for a place to nest - both Bombus terrestris and Bombus lucorum - seemingly in larger numbers than I have seen before. Perhaps the searching season has been compressed by the weather. I first found Bombus pratorum - the Early Nesting Bumblebee - in a fairly wild area in 2006, but I have seen several workers appearing on the hedgerow in the last few years: apparently it is becoming increasing urbanised due to the removal or loss of its usual habitat.

I found this queen - one of two queens that I have seen for the first time this year - crawling slowly around, so I suspect she had just emerged, since she is shiny clean.

Queen Bombus pratorum

Bombus pratorum is one of our smaller bumblebees, with queens the size of the workers of larger species and workers not much larger than a pea. Identification of the queen is based on size, the orange/red tail and the two-tone yellow bands on thorax and abdomen. You can see the worker here, and the male here.

A couple of moths came to light. The micros were worn beyond identification, but the March Moth is always very easy to identify due to the very triangular shape of the wings at rest:

March Moth

This is a good 6 weeks later than I normally see.

A few more flowers have opened, the most notable being Common Fumitory:

Common Fumitory

The Fumitory family (which is large and complex) gets its name from the glaucus ('smoky') colour of the leaves.

The 1k square challenge list now sits at 295 species. The list can be seen here.

Maybe I'm urban now

I first found the Early Nesting Bumblebee - Bombus pratorum - on my patch about 3 years ago. Its usual habitat is in more rural surroundings, but due to agricultural 'development' it is now becoming more urban, although that's hardly how I would describe my area. This little worker is on Raspberry which suits the short tongue very nicely. It's about the size of a pea.

Meadowsweet is showing nicely now and the fungal rust Triphragmium ulmariae is already well in evidence. Notice that the fungus has affected the leaf's growth enough to turn it completely over. This alteration of the plant growth is purely to assist the fungus to spread by spore dispersal, and qualifies the fungus as a plant gall.

Brightly-coloured flies are often Hoverflies, but this little Soldier Fly can be recognised by the wing veins. No identification yet, but that spiked scutellum must be a clue:

Yes, that's my reflection in the thorax.

These are a few of my favourite things

It's June, and we've had a week of great weather, so the insects are appearing very quickly now.

Two great hoverflies, starting with one of my favourites: Leucozona lucorum. Look out for its close relatives Leucozona glaucia and Leucozona laternaria.


Anasimyia lineata is another favourite because I suspected it would be present, but it took me 5 years to find it. The larvae are associated with Bulrush - Typha sp.


Cantharis rustica is one of around half a dozen Soldier Beetles on the patch.


Male and female Azure Damselflies - Coenagrion puella:



Two shots of male Bombus pratorum:

I'm not sure if it's raining again or still raining.

Bombus pratorum is a bumblebee that I only started seeing locally about 3 years ago. It is thought to be becoming increasingly urbanised as farming practices push it out of agricultural land. It was certainly very numerous in central Glasgow when I visited last year.



Empid flies, or dance flies, have a wonderful long proboscis that they use to suck fluids out of the bodies of other insects.


Raspberry flowers have just opened, and the solitary B. pratorum was methodically working its way along the hedgerow, visiting every flower. If it accidentally revisited a flower it had already been to, the mistake was recognised in less than a second.


The Meadow Foxtail I showed last week has flowered.