Respite

A day of fairly intensive writing, broken up by a quick walk round Stonepit Close, mostly in the rain. Despite the gloomy conditions it was great to be out among vast swathes of Wild Marjoram, and to spot the tiny purple flowers of Basil-thyme sprinkled in areas of recent disturbance.

But today the invertebrates were what really caught my eye. My main image is of a Tachinid fly named Cistogaster globosa. It's quite tiny, only about 5 mm long, but has a very distinctive shape. It's a parasite of the Bishop's Mitre shield bug, and at one time it was considered to be very rare. Climate change has allowed its host to spread north, and Cistogaster has followed in its footsteps. It;s now moderately frequent locally in open-structured flowery places favoured by the Bishop's Mitre.

My extra image shows a female Chalk Yellow-faced Bee Hylaeus dilatatus. As its name suggests, it favours sites on chalk and limestone, including old quarries and visits a wide variety of flowers. it nests in hollow stems and twigs as well as holes in wood.