(mostly) Buzzy things around the garden

It's been so hot these last four weeks that we haven't been anywhere interesting, not even for a walk. It's a bit sad to not be able to enjoy summer to the full, although we did have a few cooler days recently so I got a chance to do some jobs in the garden. We still have the works going on in the basement so perhaps it's as well that it is hot as we need to be around most of the time to answer queries, make coffee and generally keep an eye on things! I'll post some pictures about that later on when it's all finished.

This first pic was taken on 28 June when the broom was flowering in the grassland across from our house. The tree line behind the broom towards the top is someone's garden, however the trees are spreading/selfseeding into the meadow from their garden too.

I had a wander up the road, pleased to see that there were more wild fennel plants than a few years ago. And then I discovered three Swallowtail (Papilio machaon) caterpillars on one small plant! I often search for them but it's the first time I have ever seen any on wild fennel.

Back in the garden I thought I would have a bash at shooting butterflies in flight. Well I failed miserably at that. Butterflies are way too erratic with their movements! I was using my Lumix bridge camera and maybe I need to try again with my Canon dslr and on an even faster speed. I think I need to set it on the tracking setting, although I never had much luck with that when I tried it before.

Anyway, for the buzzy things which hover or pause, even for a very short time, I did much better with the Lumix than I had imagined. I was really pleased with the camera.  

Hummingbird Hawkmoth (Macroglossum stellatarum). As usual, the insect photos are worth clicking on to view larger as there is far more detail in the larger photos.

Beefly - I don't know which species but it could be of the Bombylius genus. I don't think it is Bombylius major which I see in the spring. It would help if I had captured the markings on the wings! I currently see two sizes of beefly at home and this is the larger one.

A Meadow Brown (Maniola jurtina) being photobombed by a tiny bee or wasp!

These large bees have been around in the garden for about the last two weeks. They are the Giant Resin Bee (Megachile sculpturalis) and they are only interested in the Russian Sage (Perovskia) which is a bit odd! These solitary bees use holes in wood to make their nest chambers, but have not discovered my bee hotel - yet.

They have really cool wings which are clear near the body of the bee and dark brown further away.

And this is the largest bee we see, the Violet Carpenter Bee (Xylocopa violacea). This one seems to like my ornamental Sage 'Hot Lips' better than any other plant in the garden.

I managed a shot of this unknown tiny bee on a Cat Mint flower. It has pretty eyes (you'll probably need to click on the photo to view.)

This is a medium sized bee that I was lucky to capture. It must be a leafcutter bee as the following day that hole it was in was filled in, and covered over by small bits of cut leaf, like the other two holes. I have seen a bee in and out of those holes before but it was too fast for me to see it properly, so I am pleased I got this picture! The next day there was a fourth hole filled in so I’m guessing it’s just one egg chamber per hole.

What I originally thought were tiny bees making nests in the tiny holes I am now thinking are parasitic wasps. This is because there are lots of them and they just spend their time going in and out of all the holes - presumably looking for newly made nest chambers to parasitise. If they were making nests themselves they wouldn't be going in and out of different holes all the time, they would be spending time inside the chambers. You can see that some of the previously used holes are open, but there are so many of these small holes I can't tell which have been newly covered over or opened up! I haven't seen any other kind of tiny bee around these holes though.

I'm really happy to have captured this bee, which is a Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium Florentinum). Last year one of them filled in nine nest holes all close to each other in the bee hotel! This year the nest chambers are dotted about and I have seen five different bees all inside the holes at the same time! They collect fluffy plant material to line the nest chambers and spend ages spreading it all out inside each chamber. 

Although this bee looks like it is feeding on the Perovskia in the pictures, I am pretty sure this is the plant from which they are collecting the fluffy fibres. That's a honey bee in the background.

I have seen these bees patrolling around in my herb bed and they make strange darting movements continuously, rarely stopping on a flower. I read that the males are aggressive bees and will see off or even fight and kill other males in their territories. I have also seen a female stealing the nesting material of another one whilst I was watching the bee hotel, the cheeky bee!

Here's that same species in the bee hotel. On the right are the same five holes and top left was used by a different species as it's filled in with a greeny mix. In the lower pic you can see the white fibres used in the middle hole. These are the largest holes in the bee hotel so you can see it's quite a chunky bee.

Last but not least, not buzzy but still on the yellow and black theme, a Wasp Spider! I have started noticing them around in the last three weeks - starting off so small I could only ID them by the zigzag stabilimentum on the web. Now they are getting larger so I can ID by eye. What always amazes me is how they go back to the same places to make their webs. Given that I moved the egg sacs from the Valerian and put them under the hedge during the winter, how come they know to go back to the same places? There are more in the ditch and the wild patch behind the shed, just like the two previous years. Just like House Martins coming back to the same nests/buildings year after year.... so interesting. I am besottted by them! 😀

L

Oh, and Mrs Black Redstart is still sitting on eggs in the same nest on our terrace! The cats still completely ignore them which is totally bizarre but a very good thing. 👍

Bee hotel update and more Wasp Spiders

Bee activity has slowed down in the bee hotel but there are still a few bees preparing their nest chambers. Some bees like below, have closed the chamber with a strange saliva like substance that looks like bubbly plastic!

With all these pictures, it is much better to click on them to see them much sharper and clearer, not to mention larger.

Below were the first six nests of my yellow and black bee that I mentioned in a previous post - well I have now discovered that it is a Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium species), who don’t use leaves or mud to line their nests, but plant hairs! I don't have any obvious furry leaved plants but there is furry stuff on the spent flowers/seed pods of Perovskia, so it might have come from that. If you look at the two pictures below, you'll see one chamber in preparation, lined with cotton wool like stuff. The other five chambers below have been sealed off; I'm guessing from the colours that four are with some kind of chewed up plant material and the brown one with chewed woody stuff or soil.

This bee eventually made nine nest chambers! She was one busy bee. 😀 I have also seen one again in my herb bed, displaying a rather strange behaviour of buzzing and hovering around a couple of my herbs that are in bloom, occasionally stopping on a flower for a nano second only to buzz off again and continue this strange patrolling. The males of Anthidium manicatum display territorial behaviour,  patrolling around their favoured plants and chasing off other pollinators, whilst waiting for females to appear, so it's possible other Anthidium bees do the same. I have no idea how long their nesting season goes on for, so cross fingers there may be more nests in the bee hotel from this species!

There are 11 species of Anthidium in France whilst only A. manicatum in the UK, so I can't be sure which exact species is my bee, though I don't believe they all collect plant hairs. I really don't have the time right now to research this further.

Other solitary bees have chosen the cut pieces of bamboo for their nest chambers, although what has struck me since these chambers were sealed off, is that some of them have been broken into. I know there are parasitic wasps, and also other bees who lay their eggs in the nest chambers of other bees (they are known as Cuckoo Bees), but what has surprised me is that they haven't resealed the chamber. It's not just this one below (top right bamboo), but other different sized holes from other bees have also shown this breaking in....

.... like these tiny holes here - some on the bottom row have been broken into.

So you can see, so much to study and research and keep me occupied! It's all so fascinating and I look forward to seeing a whole year in the life of my bee hotel next year. And I must remember to take my camera out more often and take photos of the bees!

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Now back to my Wasp Spiders. Below is a young one.

And this is a freshly made web (when the spider wasn't around). The zigzag stabilimentum is quite clear here with a furry mass of web where the spider tends to hang around.

Here we have a very slightly older spider with a male very close to her. Males are very small in comparison to the adult spiders, which you'll see a bit further down. I saw many males this year though I never saw them doing the actual business nor being eaten! Note also in this photo is a moult, known as an exoskeleton. Like many insects, as they grow they shed their outer shell. I tried to take one to keep when the spider wasn't there any more, but it fell apart in my fingers, it was so delicate.

A more mature spider with its wrapped up dinner.

This is part of our ditch between us and the neighbours where many of the spiders could be found, especially around the Oregano which is abundant in the ditch area. This ditch is a passageway for butterflies and other insects, so a good place for spiders to find food.

Underside view of a male spider on its own - I found that after some of the females disappeared that the males would hang around alone for a few days until they presumably went off to find another female.

Now here's a mature female from the under side, with two males. Lucky lady - she had a choice!

You can really see the difference in size now.

This is part of my Nectar Bar and in this patch there were eventually seven mature Wasp Spiders!

The most I counted at one time was 23, but sadly, one by one they disappeared, whether they have been predated or what, I don't know. I'm very disappointed as I think I had some around until September last year, and I have only found one egg sac so far, in the Valerian. Hopefully there will be more in the ditch.

I read that Wasp Spiders can be predated by birds, praying mantises, lizards and wasps, that's not all wasps but probably one of the spider hunting wasps.

We are off in the Moho next week to Provence again, but further to the north of the region in some of the regional parks in the mountains that we haven't visited before, though we'll finish off at our favourite beachside campsite for a few days as usual!

I'll then write about some of our travels during the winter like I did last year. See you in a few weeks! 😀

More Orchids at home and a new bee hotel

This is certainly a good year for orchids! We have so many at home and some new ones too which is exciting.

Just along the road, on a steep bank below my neighbour's house (who, by the way, mowed off all those lovely Lady Orchids that I showed in my last post about orchids around here *rolls eyes*) I noticed a couple of orchids amongst the Lady Orchids which were different. I couldn't get close to them as the slope is way too steep to climb but my zoomed photos were good enough for them to be identified on our local Facebook group.

This is a Military Orchid (Orchis militaris), though sadly it's going over. Now last year I found one on the other side of the road, further along, and I've been looking for it this year, in vain. I don't mind where one pops up though and the nearer to my garden the better!

Then there was this one, which has been identified as a Lady x Military cross which, given there were about eight Lady Orchids here, makes sense. Maybe the Military Orchid was there last year but I didn't notice.

This is the hybrid orchid on the bank above a regular Lady Orchid (Orchis purpurea).

A picture of my lawn and this is even after I have removed dozens of labels! It's better if you click to view the photo larger as you can see the orchids clearer.

A big surprise this year was discovering the first Long-lipped Tongue Orchid (Serapias vomeracea) in our lawn! The poor thing has been mown when it was in bud so it is rather stunted, but hopefully it will spread seeds in time.

Maybe it came from this one which is in the verge outside our house which I discovered a few years ago. It’s the only one I can see in our road though, so these two feel extra special.

A closer look at the orchid lawn - the two main species flowering now, Man Orchids and Pyramidal Orchids.

Man Orchids (Orchis anthropophora) are interesting when you look at them close up. The man shape (the lip, or labellum) is like a childlike drawing of a man, with spindly limbs. They can have various colours on the lip, from cream to pale yellow and pink to red. 

This one is cream at the bottom and dark pinky red at the top.

Pyramidal Orchid (Anacamptis pyramidalis).

We have eight Lizard Orchids (Himantoglossum hircinum) in bud in the lawn, and this one on the bank under our hedge outside, which is a first for there. 

In the back garden we have loads of Early Spider Orchids (Ophrys sphegodes). The first ones appeared around March/April but these are a second flush, though are not the Late Spider Orchid, which is a different species!

The nectar bar is doing extremely well with many plants way too big! I pruned back that Sage in the middle by more than half at the end of winter, but it’s already as big as it was last year. And the Catmints are even bigger this year! I’m using link stakes to hold some plants away from others to stop them getting swamped. 

There seems to be lots of interest in the flowers this year and I’ve seen my first ever Longhorned Bee and a Glanville Fritillary on the flowers this spring, amongst many others. Yesterday evening there were six Hummingbird Hawkmoths feeding at the same time - a fabulous sight!

The Pyracantha hedge is covered in flowers and just alive with insects. Butterflies love it as well as flies, bees, wasps and beetles. Below: Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta).

Keith discovered this Glanville Fritillary (Melitaea cinxia) perched on a pool filter cover! It was happy to pose and then I took it on my finger and put it on a plant. I think it must have recently eclosed as it didn't seem to want to fly away.

For my birthday I asked for a bee hotel as we left our old one behind when we moved. This is a much bigger one, although it's not as deep so depending on how many eggs specific bees lay, they can always use more than one hole. I think he did a great job making it from odds and ends of wood that we had in the garage. 💜

For the moment I have put it behind a pillar on the patio where it is both in the shade and dry. Although I haven't seen any in action, we have had solitary bees nesting in little spaces in our shutters, including leaf cutter bees, so they must fly along this area. There are pots with flowers on the patio nearby, so hopefully they will find it. We will see! 😀

Keith remembered me getting excited about seeing a picture of some amazing spider brooches so kindly got me some of my own.

It was very sweet of him, although he didn't quite match the size of the originals (nor the price, I am sure!!!) worn by Queen Maxima of the Netherlands! Aren't they amazing? Apparently she has lots of insect jewellery. 😀


Credit Hello Magazine

Well there you go, a long post to finish on. We did go on an amazing botanical/orchid day out recently with our birding group, but I have so many photos that I will leave that blog post until after our holiday! For now, I am out of here as my brother is coming at the weekend and I need to get the house cleaned and the moho ready for our upcoming holiday. See you anon. 😁