The Lyons Share

Well, to accommodate Bombus hortorum's long tongue. Why the long tongue then? So that it can get into long flowers such as the labiates and legumes. Yes, I've been on a bumblebee course ran by Mike Edwards on  behalf of the Trust at Lewes Railway Lands and the Linklater Pavilion today. Bumblebees have always been a bit of a blind spot for me but I have definitely made progress today. Bombus hortorum was a new one for me although it is very common. We saw one queen Bombus hypnorum but it got away.

We also saw lots of Bombus lapidrius, a very common bee that I have seen before but it's nice to know how to recognise the males too. The top photo is of a queen, the bottom one a male.

We spotted a few other things around the site that I had not seen before including a bee specific to Red Bartsia called Melitta tricincta and a small dark cranefly called Nigrotipula nigra.

However, this photo is best of all. This poor little sucker (I have no idea what species of fly this is) flew straight into a spiny bract on some Teasel and impaled itself! Flying is dangerous business and you should always look where you are going.