Insects on the flowers - July edition
With the fine weather and the abundance of blooms in July, I was finally able to get some nice photos of the insects that visit the garden. Many of them tend to concentrate on the globe thistles and scabious flowers at my eye level, which means I have a better chance of catching them on camera before they flit off to the next patch of food.
We have a number of butterfly species that visit, but I’m usually not fast enough to get a close look for identification. I spotted this sweet little Gatekeeper butterfly foraging on scabious nectar. The Gatekeeper depends on long, unkempt grassy areas for its larval stage, and I’m hoping that it’s finding suitable egg-laying spots in the perimeter of the garden where I’ve been letting the grass grow long for two summers now. I came across the Comma butterfly on the underside of one of my bird feeders one morning, and I’ve found a few Peacock butterflies hanging out on my wheelbarrow. The Peacocks will flash their colourful upper wings at me before flying off the barrow, but so far I’ve only gotten a photo of the underwing.
The globe thistles have been absolutely buzzing with bumblebees these past few weeks. I have a row of these thistles planted along the front of the house, and they’re tall enough that I can sit in the living room window and watch the bumbles work the little florets to my heart’s content.
All sorts of bees and insects, including loads of hoverflies, have been busy at other flowers, particularly the poppies, scabious, lavender, sunflowers, ammi and carrots. Because the larvae of some hoverflies predate aphids, I’m keen to provide a very welcoming habitat for these flies!
