Infantry vs Tanks

At first glance all seems quiet in the garden but on closer inspection, today heralded a major offensive….

The Battlefield
7-Spot Ladybird Laagar.
Ant front Line and the 7-spots are on the move.

Direct hit, one aphid down.

Counter attack but it’s a heavily armoured predator and the best the ants can hope for is to drive it away.
The opposition are too many so withdraw, check damage and clean up.
Rest and regroup, ready for the next attack.

A pleasing total of 12 7-spot ladybirds in one small area of the garden today along with several harlequins. At one point I was watching 7 ants defending and losing against 2 7-spots. The life of the infantry is tough, what chance do they stand against tanks?

Elsewhere in the garden…

Brimstone feeding amongst the sweat peas.

Scaeva pyrastri
Hairy Eyes

Out amongst the hoverflies was this amazing beastie.

I’ve no idea what it is but it would ambush hoverflies, hold them in it’s long legs and appear to sting them and then let them go. I’m assuming it was laying an egg in or on the hoverfly. It also had some very fierce looking pincers and extremely large eyes which definitely helped it to track the hoverflies. The preferred prey species seemed to be Episyrphus balteatus but that may be because they are the ost numerous amongst the ox-eye daisies and valerian.

Ran the mv trap on Friday night but a full moon lit night affected the number of the species caught. A couple of nice waves though.

Dwarf Cream Wave

Single-dotted Wave