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2/2 They've let things take their course and on closer inspection a lot of the butterfly pupae have parasitic wasp pupae next to them. This really is IPM in action. They are hopeful the plants will recover OK and there's many wasps onsite to deal with any more caterpillars.

A couple more Suffolk Tachina from last week ready for the BENHS Tachinid workshop on 16th November. The females are tricky and often appear to be somewhere between fera and magnicornis. The smaller of these has black tarsi, wide end to abdominal stripe and narrow frons for eg.

First male Anthophora plumipes, some Bombus terrestris and a B. pratorum queen in Christchurch Park in Ipswich this afternoon. Quite a lot of Crocus flowering with some early Prunus out or nearly out. 🌞☀️

If you care about our seas and the fish that swim in them, don't miss countryslidepod this week with our truly superb guest Mike Warner from A Passion for Seafood. He is the finest advocate for sustainable eating I have met. The episode goes live at 18.30

Think I need my hand holding. I've keyed this out 2x to varians but I've never seen a female before. This will be about 3rd confirmed 'modern' Suffolk site for it so I need to be sure it is. Features all fit OK but ab seems a bit paler haired than expected. Steven Falk

My office this week has been spectacular. Many thanks to all the landowners involved.

A. scotica. No problems with him. No genal spine, dark sternites, short bidentate mandibles. 2/3

Andrena male. No genal spine, red sternites, long mandibles with perhaps just the slightest hint of extra tooth. Rear tarsi also noticeably pale with similar colour to tibia end. He just looks different to the scotica males (they're from a different but fairly nearby site). 3/3

Walking by the Dorset Stour this am. Noticeable lack of terrestrial insects. Lots of odonata but hardly anything on the umbells or Hawthorn. Maybe bcs it gets regularly flooded? It's v dry, so no nectar? Idk. 1 prat nest, few hort and pasc, few flies. More stuff in Graham's yard!

So this week in the world of farm/environment/land management/ mapping has been “interesting” And by “interesting” I mean “verging on the utterly bonkers” Why? Well this week started with Natural England, the government body that looks after the environment launching a new map.

Another badger-predated Bombus nest. Hortorum last week in Dorset. This week pratorum in Suffolk. Badgers ⬆️ Bees ⬇️. It can't not follow.

Calling male Turtle Dove at Clopton yesterday afternoon. First I've heard out that way for probably 10 years. Do they call from what they consider suitable nesting areas? Graham Denny Mark Nowers SWT Farm Wildlife Advice Operation Turtle Dove

"Lawrence (1954) found that, on average, each cowpat produced 1,000 developing insects. Assuming each cow produced 6 suitable pats per day, this was equivalent to 6,000 insects per day, 2.2 million insects per year for each cow kept outside all year-round" #biodiversity #cows