What's on your lavender today?

[Africa]

I thought I would start this thread after spending some time watching the activity around my lavenders. These are the insects that have been feeding and visiting my lavenders today:
Large white butterfly
Holly blue butterfly
Anthidium manicatum male patrolling the grey lavender, male jumps on female and mates; the male is busy tackling all the visiting insects: Episyrphus balteatus, Bombus terrestris, Apis mellifera, and Megachile centuncularis;
Also Bombus hypnorum and Bombus lapidarius male and female.

[artdemole]

Bees bombing about the blue.

[Back]

I have an Anthophora sp., various species of bumblees and Large and Small Whites. I love my lavender, and nearly just bought yet another plant from the market for the wildlife.

[philip shaw]

Ouside Stockholm we have large, small and green-veined white, tortoisehells, bombus hypnorum, bombus terrestris or something and lots of Essex skippers on the lavender. Last year we had buddleia and the tortoiseshells and fritillaries liked that better, but it died in last year's long winter. Fritillaries now just flitter past sneering at the lavender. I didn't notice the skippers last year.

[Africa]

Back, I am envious of your Anthophora! have you found out which species it is? and phillip, fritillaries and skippers, wow!
I will add Bombus lucorum to my today list. I have three lavender cultivars that bloom slightly out of phase and have different hights. A grey-lead colour variety is the favourite of the Wool Carder bee (Anthidium), so it leaves insects on the other lavenders well alone.

[SpikyPhasmid]

I was at Kew Gardens today, and near Palm House they had these lavender beds that were totally covered in bees. I got some pictures, but I'm not a photographer, so they're not great.

[Back]

Originally Posted by Africa

Back, I am envious of your Anthophora! have you found out which species it is? and phillip, fritillaries and skippers, wow!
I will add Bombus lucorum to my today list. I have three lavender cultivars that bloom slightly out of phase and have different hights. A grey-lead colour variety is the favourite of the Wool Carder bee (Anthidium), so it leaves insects on the other lavenders well alone.

Hi Africa,

It was ID'd here on WAB, and the species couldn't be determined. I'm not knowledgeable enough to even know what to look for in order to answer this, I'm afraid.

Bev

[philip shaw]

WE have Anthidium manicatum (or very similar) here outside Stockholm too, or did last week, behaving in a very aggressive way. But (shame) I thought it was a hoverfly. What a good forum this is for the ignorant.

[aeshna5]

At Kew I also looked at the lavender + was swarming with at least 4 species of Bombus, also a few Honeybees, a Bee-wolf (first time I've seen one at Kew but are quite common now at nearby Wimbledon Common), the hoverfly, Chrysotoxum bicinctum, a couple of Gatekeepers + a Small White.