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Wednesday 26 June 2019

Some insects in a West Sussex garden today and controlling aphids on Runner bean plants

 A walk around my garden today revealed a wide range of insects, for example Oedemera nobilis, Thick-legged flower beetle, https://www.buglife.org.uk/bugs-and-habitats/thick-legged-flower-beetle
Aphid on dandelion flower.
 Click on any picture to expand it.
Oedemera nobilis, Thick-legged flower beetle

 Self-sown poppies were enjoyed by an undefined bumblebee.

This looks like a Harlequin ladybird on runner beans.
 Ladybirds and their larvae are predators of black fly, which are plentiful on my beans.
Black flies
 Aphids have many natural enemies, including ladybirds, hoverfly larvae, lacewing larvae and several parasitic wasps.  Plants in flower should not be sprayed due to the danger to bees and other pollinating insects. Source: RHS  My beans are left to their own devices and the good work of aphid predators.
This solitary bee is smothered in pollen and looks as though it has done a good job pollinating the bean flowers.





 Yellow Rattle is going to seed now.  It is an annual and moves around the garden with the seed dispersal. 
The wildflower lawn is attractive to many insects.  Here a Red-tailed Bumblebee male possibly as it is not collecting pollen.  Or might it be a cuckoo bee?

Above a Red-tailed Bumblebee worker with pollen baskets feeding on clover in the lawn.

 With dark wings and short hairs on its legs this might be a Field Cuckoo Bee, Bombus campestris.



 A harlequin ladybird larva on a bramble leaf.
 Mating Meadow Brown butterflies.


Female Meadow Brown
 



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