Saturday 28 September 2013

The Insects' Blue Heaven

We had very little knowledge of gardening when we came to plant up our new plot, so we just stuck shrubs and flowers into the soil and sat back and watched to see if they would survive.  Some did, some didn't, but one of the successes was a Caryopteris, blue spirea, which has had a super late flowering season this year, despite the damp end to the summer.  Its profusion of flowers has attracted myriad insects, more than the buddleia, including this beautiful peacock butterfly.

But its main worshippers have been the local wasps, bees and hoverflies. This looks like a honey bee, perhaps from Trevor Potts' hives along the road at the Ardnamurchan Campsite, but he was joined by....

 ....this smartly striped bumblebee....

....and a number of other bumblebees all of whom wore rather smart furry coats....


....but seemed to vary considerably in colour and patterns, so....

....we really weren't sure whether they were all the same species or several different ones.

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