Sweet Snowdrops

I cannot get enough of the sunny weather we are having during March. Today, Honey Bees were foraging on Snowdrops and Crocuses. The one on the top photo was clearly collecting pollen, retreating after entering each bloom and hovering while rubbing their legs together. A full pollen basket is clearly visible.

There were two honey bees at the same time in this crocus.

I also saw my first bumblebee today, flying high over my garden, so I couldn't ID it. I was a bit surprised Anthophora wasn't the first bee of the year.

A glimpse of Spring

We've had a wonderful sunny start of March. Mornings are still frosty, but - compared to the past three long, cold, cloudy and gloomy months - spring seems to be on its way. The first Grape Hyacinths (Muscari racemosum) of the year have opened, joining Snowdrops, Crocuses and Primroses. Today I've been tidying up in the garden. There have been many plant casualties of this unusually cold winter, but the survivors have started to grow, buds are thickening and leaves slowly unfurling.

A Wolf Spider (above) walked on a white wall and settled on an Ivy leaf to sunbathe.
 The pair of 7-spotted ladybirds, of which I wrote before, are still nestled together amongst the spiky leaves of the monkey puzzle tree. They have been there since early November. In contrast, I have seen active ladybirds in more sunny positions in the garden, enjoying the sunshine and hiding again afterwards.

A 7 spot ladybird enjoying the sun

A Bluebottle feeding on an Ivy leaf

Unidentified fly

Sleeping Snails

A sunny day like a jewel in a dull, cold winter. For the first time in months I venture out to do some gardening. There are little signs of bug activity. A few 7-spot ladybirds sunbathing; a cloud of winter gnats; a bluebottle which rapidly gets into the house through the back door...I moved an old tile left leaning against a south-facing wall and found a gathering of overwintering snails stuck to the tile and the wall. A few small ones, but mostly of them grown up snails, shell against shell. In this spot they keep relatively warm and dry during the winter. The snail secretes a specially tough mucus to seal its shell opening which can glue it to walls, or other snails.

A dormant snail operculum.

More on Garden Snails at BugBlog:

Darts for love on the strange mating tactics of your garden Snails.

Wasp nest

Wasps nests have been described as 'human head' shape and size and it's not far from the truth. I photographed this old abandoned nest in November, under the eaves of an Edwardian house. I bet that the owners couldn't open the windows in the summer without getting a stream of wasps in! All the wasps from this nest, except the new queens, are now dead. The queens will hibernate and come out in March, where there are often seen sunbathing, to start new nests. Most of the wasps we see in the summer are worker wasps.

An unwelcome bug

I usually enjoy having the chance to write BugBlog posts. Not today. As a parent of school age children, I have had occasionally to deal with lice infestations. One of these was apparent on one of my children during the holidays. A combnitting session today yielded shocking results. Tens of nits (eggs) and a fat adult louse. I couldn't resist the photo opportunity. This is the first adult lice I have seen. In previously infestations I could only see nits. I hope this is the only adult louse and that we can clear it quickly.

The louse clinging to hair. Its dark stomach indicates a recent feed of blood

Anyway, despite my dread of live lice, they are fascinating creatures on their own right. Lice are apterous bloodsucking insects (order Phthiraptera) that are adapted to clinging to hair - hence, they are found only in mammals. They lay their eggs gluing them in a shaft to individual hairs, close to the scalp. The newborn lice are nymphs, they are smaller and simpler than adults and metamorphose slowly into adults in three stages. Individuals live for a month or so and females can lay several hundreds of eggs in their lifetime. The study of such species-specific ectoparasites can provide information on the evolution of their hosts. Humans are the host of two species of lice (wingless insects of the order Anoplura), the pubic louse and the hair/body lice complex. In the past hair and body lice were thought to belong to different species, one adapted to lay their eggs on hair, the other on clothing. It was thought that body lice had evolved with the invention of clothing into a separate species. Molecular analysis have revealed, though that the body louse has evolved several times and that they do not form a monophyletic unit separate from head lice. These studies have revealed more intriguingly that there are three old genetic lineages of lice (only one of them includes body lice) and the authors hypothesized that one of such lineages might have evolved in Homo erectus, and been transferred to modern humans when they met. A fascinating hypothesis that has proven to be difficult to test due to the lack of good calibrations for lice DNA.