Newcomers

Gardens can support a rich and diverse invertebrate fauna. I've been photographing some of the species using our garden over the last week and have been impressed by how many are recent arrivals in the UK, including two bugs, one on Snapdragon and one on Pot Marigold, and a tiny but very attractive gall-forming fly which is currently listed as RDB1 but is very frequent on our Pot Marigolds.

Today I've photographed a very small (c 2.5mm) but beautifully patterned beetle, Bruchidius varius. It was added to the British list in 1997 from a single specimen found in East Sussex in 1994 but has spread rapidly through much of the southern half of Britain and is now quite frequent locally.There is a single generation each year with adults appearing after hibernation in April. New generation adults begin to appear in July and August and remain in the dry flower heads until they leave to find cover for hibernation. This one was heading for a thick patch of Ivy, well known to be an important feature for overwintering invertebrates/


Eggs are laid at the bases of flowers from early May to June or July and hatch within a few days; larvae probably develop within clover seeds (Hodge, 1997) and growth is completed within 30 to 35 days.