For something slightly different here are some photos I took in my unprepossessing
Newport garden during some brief dry and sunny spells this month.
A pristine Speckled Wood butterfly Pararge aegeria.
Also smart is this Comma butterfly
Polygonia c-album. It looks too smart to have hibernated though it seems too early to be from a new generation.
I have seen many different mining bees
Andrena sp. There are 67 species recognised in the UK. Many are a challenge to identify. Males and females are often very different. Some females can be easier. With the orange hairs on its leg this is a Gwynne's Mining Bee
A. bicolor.
A possible Yellow-legged Mining Bee A. flavipes.
Just about the smartest and easiest to identify are female Tawny Mining Bees A. fulva.
I think this an Orange-tailed Mining Bee A. haemorrhoa: though the 'tail' is barely marked and even less obviously 'orange'.
Here is a Grey-patched Mining Bee A. nitida.
This is a female Chocolate Mining Bee A. scotia.
Mason bees Osmia sp. are slightly bulkier than Mining Bees. This is a Red Mason Bee Osmia bicornis.
Not a hoverfly species I see very often at the lake is Early Epistrophe
Epistrophe eligans. Also known as Spring Epistrophe.
A Chequered Hoverfly
Melanoma scalare showing its abdomen markings. This species is also known as Long-winged Duskyface.
Also showing well is this Grey-spotted Boxer
Platycheirus albimanus. Also known as Grey-spotted Sedgesitter. No sedges in my garden (no boxers either!).
A
Syrphus species, either
S. ribesii /
S. vitripennis. I would need to have a clear view of the whole of the rear leg to specifically identify it. The species seems almost always to hide this feature.
I have noted many flies, most of which I cannot identify. This easier: it is the Muscid fly
Phaonia subventa.
A 7 Spot Ladybird Coccinella 7-punctata with rather unusual additional dark shading.
Preparing the next generation of 7 Spot Ladybirds.
One of the more unusual variations of Harlequin Ladybird Harmonia axyridis.
A small and very common plant bug Liocoris tripustulatus.
A Common Green Shieldbug Palomena prasina.
(Ed Wilson)
