Insect Soup

Lovely and mild but dull and rainy here in Essex this Good Friday. When I was in the plant raising and sale business I never had Easter off. MrQ and I used to spend the holiday in the potting shed. Our children would help to man the potting machine. In the latter years we used to be frantically potting accompanied by my disabled mother in her wheelchair, she being looked after by my nonogenarian mother-in-law. I think that's why I so relish the simple pleasure of walking the property with my dog now.

I found the above swimming in rainwater that had collected in a deep plastic box. One of the seven spot ladybirds has been there for a while, water droplets can be seen under its wing cases. On damp ladybird's back is a plain red beetle, Coccidula rufa from the ladybird family and on its back is a globular springtail. These insects can jump as high as the equivalent of a human launching itself over the Eiffel Tower. It did launch but the box sides were too high and it ended up back in the drink. There's another globular springtail top right and near that another slightly different one. Some sort of insect larva can be seen, together with a minute black beetle, flies and an ordinary springtail. I haven't been able to identify the gold and black beetle on the left. Once I had taken my pic I scooped them up with a leaf from what would have been their watery grave.