Insects and puddles

 

After the weekend rain the forest is alive again with a variety of insects busy visiting wildflowers. It is also good news for the tadpoles that survived. The appearance of a ladybird was a surprise today and below some sort of grasshopper/cricket, the like of which I have never seen before.

These beetles (below) were numerous, buzzing over the flowers like small bees, which is what I first thought they were until I looked a little closer.

Iridescent green and brown made them quite eye catching.

... and no wonder there were so many.

Bees were also out in numbers with many different types. I shall have to make a special post just for bees sometime, once I have collected enough photos.

However the typical honey bees and bumblebees seen normally were not so common. Instead many insects that I have never seen before.

Then there were the bees that looked like wasps and wasps that looked like bees.

Wasps or bees, you can tell by their knees.

They come in all shapes, patterns, colours and sizes.

Is this a wasp or what? The one below I am pretty sure is a bee.

There is no shortage of small, delicate, pretty wildflowers too.

Puddle news:

The newts are thriving along with the remaining tadpoles. Despite inspecting the many puddles I come across during my walks, this puddle is still the only one I have seen supporting newts and tadpoles. There are even two similar sized puddles nearby but both those are lifeless at least above microscopic levels.

The adult newts are beginning to show their true colours and it would appear there are two different types, which I will call smooth and crested for the moment. The young newt (above) appears to be a crested newt, which eventually will have a crested back and orange-yellow belly making them quite distinctive. The one below may be a smooth newt or female crested newt.

Smooth newts most likely.

There was certainly no shortage of adult newts today and many young ones too, so even if this was the only puddle around here their numbers should be safe. In the photo (below) there are four newts in the space of six square inches.

The toad tadpoles however are still at risk if the puddle dries out too early. Meanwhile the newts get to know each other.