By Lesley McLaren
While we usually experience odd days of very high temperatures in June, I don't remember quite so many consecutive days over 30 degrees in previous years. It's been like this now for a good two weeks. Even the super noisy cicadas have started up, thinking it's July. Along with the normal abundance of flowers that I would expect, the heat seems to have sparked an explosion of insects. And one of the best places to see them is my garden.
It's stocked with plumbago, agapanthus, marjoram, French and English lavender, and several types of salvia - all beloved of butterflies and bees in summertime. However, the plant that wins the prize for attracting the greatest variety and number of insects is a euonymus. I wonder if it exudes a scent of death undetectable by the human nose, because most of its visitors are flies, hoverflies, wasps and beetles - none of the usual bees and only one butterfly.
Just as well, perhaps, that it's in the front garden and not near where we sit, out at the back. Having said that, the insects seem totally fixated on the flowers and pay not the slightest attention to me standing less than two feet away. There are so many - all sizes, from minute to relatively giant - in a continual dancing display over the whole shrub, that it's hard for me to know which to focus on. The best way to give you an impression of this is with a short clip.
It's stocked with plumbago, agapanthus, marjoram, French and English lavender, and several types of salvia - all beloved of butterflies and bees in summertime. However, the plant that wins the prize for attracting the greatest variety and number of insects is a euonymus. I wonder if it exudes a scent of death undetectable by the human nose, because most of its visitors are flies, hoverflies, wasps and beetles - none of the usual bees and only one butterfly.
Just as well, perhaps, that it's in the front garden and not near where we sit, out at the back. Having said that, the insects seem totally fixated on the flowers and pay not the slightest attention to me standing less than two feet away. There are so many - all sizes, from minute to relatively giant - in a continual dancing display over the whole shrub, that it's hard for me to know which to focus on. The best way to give you an impression of this is with a short clip.
They deserve a closer look but often don't settle for long or stay still enough to be photographed. I managed to capture some of the more obliging subjects; they are but a fraction of the total number (click on pics for larger image and some tentative IDs):
Few flies are as appealing as bees, but there is one I'm rather fond of. It's very small, innocuous, and masquerades as a bumblebee in both appearance and behaviour (spurning the euonymus), but those super long legs and lack of pollen 'baskets' give its species away. I usually hear the rather whiny, high-pitched buzz before I spot it darting about. Photos, revealing what the naked eye can't pick up, make me laugh.
The way those back legs are flung out makes it look as though it's skipping through the air!
Insects insects everywhere. Even in the swimming pool - though not intentionally! One morning I rescued a rhinoceros beetle, which would otherwise have drowned.
It's as big as it looks, but harmless. A shield bug and flying ant must have mistaken it for an island when they also got stuck in the water.
Another type of shield bug
Red and blue-flowered salvia are favourites of hummingbird hawkmoths, bees and butterflies. But they have other visitors too, like the shield bug above. Yesterday I spied a tiny cricket, only a few leaves away from the crab spider of my last blog.
The whole leaf is only 6cm long
Since I've mentioned crab spiders again... Earlier today I was trying to get a better shot of a little Geranium Bronze butterfly on a late flowering osteospermum, when the butterfly flew off. At the time, I huffed, but as soon as I checked photos already taken, I was relieved, because now I could see something nasty lurking behind a petal. (Click pics for larger image.)
There are arachnids that destroy insects, insects such as spider-hunting wasps that destroy arachnids, and plant-destroying insects like palm moths, whose grubs are steadily wiping out palms trees. The moths themselves are pretty, albeit noisy and rather clumsy fliers - doubtless on account of their size. This one was on our eleagnus hedge.
Crab spiders notwithstanding, there are still a lot of lovely bees in my garden; I'm keeping a separate photographic record of the different species visiting this year (see my gallery).
Arguably most beautiful of all are the butterflies. In the last few days alone, in addition to Geranium Bronzes, I've seen a Lang's Short-tailed Blue, possibly two different Hairstreaks, a Marbled White, Swallowtail, Small Heath, Speckled Wood, and ever so many Cleopatras. The latter particularly adore the lavender - as many as eight at a time have been on one plant. In flight, males are orange-blushed sunshine, females elegantly understated. As you can see, I struggle to stop photographing them! (Click on pics for larger image)
Arguably most beautiful of all are the butterflies. In the last few days alone, in addition to Geranium Bronzes, I've seen a Lang's Short-tailed Blue, possibly two different Hairstreaks, a Marbled White, Swallowtail, Small Heath, Speckled Wood, and ever so many Cleopatras. The latter particularly adore the lavender - as many as eight at a time have been on one plant. In flight, males are orange-blushed sunshine, females elegantly understated. As you can see, I struggle to stop photographing them! (Click on pics for larger image)
It's wonderful to witness this eruption of insect life. Spiders, some reptiles and amphibians, many birds and plants, bats and a few other mammals must be appreciating it even more than I am.
