Over the last few days, I've noticed a number of new insects about and, best of all, today I found the first evidence of our very own pond-produced damselfly!
Only twelve months after its creation, the irrefutable evidence that our pond is a successful damselfly habitat came in the shape of a spent nymphal case still clinging to the emergent shoots of watercress (
Nasturtium officinale). I've no way of knowing which species it is, but I don't care, I'm just over the moon to have any.
Since spring when I saw a number of new queens looking for places to nest, I have only rarely seen wasps in the garden, and they all had the look of queens about them. Yesterday though, I saw a couple of smaller, 'fresher' looking wasps which were much more likely to be this years first generation workers. I didn't get a good enough look to identify the species, but they were probably either common (
Vespula vulgaris) or german wasps (
Vespula germanica). See the feature article on
wasps for more details.
Yesterday I also came across my first ladybird larva this year in the garden. It was tiny - perhaps two or three millimetres long. I introduced it to some aphid friends of mine of the tip of a hawthorn shoot and it seemed very pleased to see them! (It was still there today!)
