For your delight and delectation, I spent a couple of hours crawling around on my allotment this week, hobnobbing with the insects. There's nothing like getting down and dirty on a sunny spring day to press your 'wow' buttons. Here's who I met:
Female Tawny mining bee (Andrena fulva) out shopping
This lady may well live in your lawn, leaving little volcanoes of earth at her doorway. She's harmless and doesn't sting so please make her welcome. She lays her eggs and raises her young in a burrow, pollinates your plants and feeds pollen to her young. She is a solitary bee, although her sisters may live nearby. The female has a reddish-ginger back and an orangey bottom. The male is smaller, browner, and plays no part in raising the family.
Female Tawny mining bee having a well earned rest
The Tawny was just one of many bees being busy in the sunshine. The honey bees were at it too.
Honey bee (Apis mellifera) with full pollen baskets
The honey bee is another welcome pollinator. Dandelions provide an essential food source for them early in the year, so it's important not to dig them all up! Honey bees are social creatures living in colonies, and collect pollen and nectar to feed the hive's brood and make honey. Pollinating hundreds of plants, they help to ensure crops produce the food that we need.
Honey bee smothered in dandelion pollen
Bees aren't the only pollinators active in our gardens. There are over 200 species of hoverfly out there too. I met several different types during my crawl. It's been a challenge trying to identify them but let me introduce you to three of them.
Eristalis pertinax
This looks rather like the honey bee. They are common and widespread and completely harmless – as are all hoverflies. They are actually flies – diptera – having only one pair or wings, while bees and wasps have two. Eristalis pertinax can be seen from March to November and is one of the larger hoverflies in Britain with a wing length of 8-13mm
Eristrophe eligans
Smaller than eristalis pertinax with a wing length of 6.5-9.5mm, this is the commonest of the eristrophe species.
A syrphus hoverfly on my redcurrant bush
I struggled to decide which of the four syrphus hoverflies this was. Maybe somebody reading this knows? You need to get a good look at their legs to really tell the difference, as some have more yellow legs and others have black. Don't confuse the stripes with those of the common wasp. Like all hoverflies, it has no sting.
Common wasp (Vespula vulgaris)
Although an unwelcome guest to a picnic, the common wasp does have an important role to play in the garden. They eat flies, aphids, caterpillars and other small insects, making them an important pest-controller.
I spent quite a while chasing white butterflies, trying to get a photo, but they just wouldn't stay still long enough. But this small tortoiseshell was happy to pose for me.
Small tortoiseshell butterfly (Aglais turticae)
Small tortoisehells are one of our most common butterflies. While this one is enjoying my dandelions, their caterpillars' favourite habitat is nettles, so cultivate a corner for them if you can.
Now moving on from the colourful pollinators, I met a few predators on my safari.
7 spot ladybird (Coccinella 7-punctata)
Ladybirds love to feast on aphids so are a very welcome garden visitor. They don't taste very nice so are mostly left to get on with it. The 7-spot can be seen from April to October.
Unfortunately, not all ladybirds are as beneficial as our native 7-spot. Since 2004, the UK has played host to the harlequin ladybird. These invasive, voracious insects will happily munch on ladybird eggs and larvae and pose a threat to the survival of our native species. I found two different harlequins on my allotment. There are many more harlequin colour schemes than these.
Harlequin harmonia axyridis succinea
Harlequin harmonia axyridis spectabilis
Some people find spiders quite beautiful. I'm happy to share my space with them, but to me they are far from pretty. There were plenty scuttling around in the undergrowth, and a few paused for a spot of sunbathing.
Spotted wolf spider (Pardosa amentata)
The wolf spider hunts down its prey rather than building a web. They eat flies and small insects.
I met a few vegetarians too, some of which were completely new to me. I'd seen Green Shieldbugs before, crawling up my broad beans but you would need a magnifying glass to see the tiny hairs on the Hairy Shieldbug. These guys like to suck the juice out of your plants with their piercing mouthparts. Shieldbugs are also known as Stink Bugs due to a foul-smelling liquid they produce when threatened.
Hairy Shieldbug (Dolycoris baccarum)
Another newbie for me was the Grass Bug. Green in spring, these become browner as the season progresses. Both adults and larvae like to eat unripe grass seeds.
Grass Bug (Stenodema laevigata)
Last but not least, meet another ugly sapsucker - Rhopalus subrufus. We have four species of Rhopalus in the UK. Subrufus' favourite food is St John's wort but it will eat many other plants too. They are more common in the south, so maybe this one was on holiday. But have a crawl round your garden and see if you can find one too.
Rhopalus subrufus
Coming up on 19th July, Fairburn Ings is welcoming Chris Packham as part of his 'UK BioBlitz – nature reserves are not enough! Campaign', to highlight the wildlife under our noses and the importance of protecting and providing habitats. Come along and help discover the hidden delights beneath your feet – more details here.