Laurustinus blossom and Tree Bumblebee

The blossom of Laurustinus, Viburnum tinus, is brightening the gardens around town. This morning I surprised this Tree Bumblebee queen, the first of the year, basking on the sunny flowers.

Sunshine at last

After stormy, windy and very dark days, there were some long sunny spells on monday and I came across several stirring insects during my daily wanderings. A cold queen Bombus terrestris on the windowsill, with the tiny sprightly springtail, Entomobrya sp, possibly nivalis, on a walkabout around her.
 Then I disturbed a moth in the front garden, the plume moth Amblyptilia acanthadactyla.
But the best find was a very fresh looking peacock settled on the pavement by a fence, with is pictured at the top of the post.

Entomobrya sp.

Bombus terrestris queen.

The plume moth Amblyptilia acanthadactyla

First queen wasp

The first queen wasp of the year got herself trapped in the conservatory. She was cold and calm, so I decided to give her a session with the white bowl. I held her in a tissue and placed her onto the bowl and she posed nicely. After a few photos, with me breathing onto her, she warmed up, started grooming her antennae and flew onto the window, and I let her go.
 The only overwintering stage of social wasps are queens. Males died at the end of the autumn after mating, and the workers a bit earlier. Their large paper nests are now empty, as the life cycle of social wasps lasts for less than one year. Queens overwinter in buildings or other dry places, but the strong wind and mild temperatures have probably helped stir this one out of her hiding place.
 The 'anchor mark' on her face identifies her as a common wasp, Vespula vulgaris.

Side view showing how hairy she is.

And a little grooming of antennae before flying off.

Slug with mites

I was amazed walking into the kitchen a few minutes ago when I came across this massive slug, stretched to over 10 cm long on the floor. A Limacus maculatus, it was covered on tiny mites, clustered near the bottom of the slug's body (click the photo to enlarge). Slugs and snails often carry mites of the genus Riccardoella but I have never noticed so many in a slug.

UPDATE. Thank you to Richard Comont and Ryan Clark for pointing me to the right species of mites. I have now amended the post.

A rainbow worm

After a long overwintering period with little activity, BugBlog comes to life thanks to these active earthworms. Using my shoe as a measuring device (cropped out of the photo) and back at home I estimated that is was over 11 cm long. There were several of these worms crossing the path on a wooded patch on the university grounds, under the rain. I usually shy away from identifying worms, but the striking colour of the clitellum - the orange band towards the front of the worms called my attention. I used the Opal Identification guide Their colour, large size and yellow tail tip narrowed down to Blue-grey worm (Octolasion cyaneum), although I think rainbow worm would be more appropriate. The species is found on the topsoil on a range of habitats. This worm had some visible injuries - possibly caused by failed predation attempts by Blackbirds or Carrion Crows.

More information
Earthworm guide. Opal. here.