Sunday 24 October 2010

Ten bluebottles sitting on the wall

Posts in BugBlog are necessarily becoming spaced out now. Although we have not had a frost yet, days are colder and darker heralding the arrival of winter, and insects are becoming scarcer by the day. Sunny today, there were still some bugs around. There were several active spider species: Garden spiders, Mouse spider, Linyphia triangularisAmaurobius and Zygiella. The garden spider female above hangs her web every day just outside the kitchen window. I liked the effect of the ripe cotoneaster berries in the background.
We came across this colourful Birch Bug, Elasmostethus intersinctus, while gardening. I identified it using the site British Bugs A great resource on hemipterans.
Greeting me early in the morning this bunch of bluebottles sunbathing on a fence. There were more than ten, but they reminded me of the song...
A harvestman, Opilio canestrini with legs outstretched on the wall.
Honeybees were the first active bees of the year and by the look of it, they are going to be the last ones too. A few are feeding on the Fuschia in the last few days. 
The positive aspect of the relative scarcity of bug activity in the garden is that I can actually do some gardening without having to rush every two minutes to the house to fetch the camera!

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