The cow parsley and hogweed are busy places. There are bees , flies and beetles and many other animals using them for feeding, hunting and mating. Yesterday they were bustling with life.
Daggerflies (Emis tessellata) we’re feeding in the hogweed umbels. They are nectar eaters but also predators that pierce their prey with their long probosis( hence the name) I thought their wings were great and their deadly profile.
Also on the dinner tables of umbelifers were Early mining bees (Andrena haemorrha) There are 60-80 in this genus found in Britain.
They are solitary bees, sometimes they live next door to other bees holes but they are not part of a colony. This is the most common species of mining bee. I like the colour of the thorax.
There were other bees and flies and beetles enjoying life in the flat tops of the hogweed. Honey bees and others.
It is definitely a place to watch as you walk down a hedgerow or the edge of a field , there is a lot going on !
NATURE TABLE EXPLORER 