Saturday 10 July 2010

June at Ardeer

With solitary bees and wasps the focus of my attention, I wasn't very conscientious with regard to butterfly counts. However, on the 26th June I made a count of 69 Dark Green Fritillaries on the Ardeer Peninsula. The biggest surprise though was when a suspiciously small fritillary which I quickly netted as it flew past turned out to be a Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary. Literally hundreds of Ringlets too and mind-boggling numbers of Six-spot Burnet Moths.

It will take a long time to ID all of my bees and wasps under the microscope. However, below are a few pictures of ones that are already ID'd.

Ceropales maculata - a 'cuckoo' Spider Wasp
Chrysis ruddi - a Cuckoo Wasp
Nomada marshamella - a 'cuckoo' solitary bee
Anthophora furcata - a solitary bee
Coelioxys elongata - a cuckoo of leafcutter bees
Ectumnius contunuus - a digger wasp
Hedychridium ardens - a Cuckoo Wasp
Colletes floralis - a solitary bee

Oxybelus uniglumis - a digger wasp

Colletes floralis
Ringlet
Six-spot Burnets on Viper's Bugloss

Small Copper on Hawthorn
Dark Green Fritillary
Dark Green Fritillary