A question about perception of insect abundance & variety

[exo]

A few beers, so bear with me.

I can't help feeling life is passing me by

Seems to me that I usually only see those insects that are trapped on my inside window,
or maybe some I see while passing some garden flower.
Some are rescued from the pond surface :



So likely I perceive only a very small percent of what's flying around about me, I assume.

So question is how do you see/observe more without resorting to beating bushes, UV light traps or running around with a net ?

Thinking of putting the camera in the garden all day looking at a single flower to see what turns up,
would like to see a larger percentage of what's going on out there, but got the feeling I see only a tiny amount.

How do you go about seeing more,
just by going bug-hunt day tripping ?

[Matt Smith]

Just stand by a Lavender bush or a Fennel plant when they are in flower, as both are in my garden at present. You will see a great range of insects visiting either of these. Flies and wasps particualrly go for the Fennel. If you don't want to go actively looking with a net, standing still near some flowers is a great way to see things.

[Kayleigh]

Nearly all of my macro shots of insects are from my garden the oxeye daisy has a lot of insects the lavender as said just plant lots of plants you like and see what turns up you will be amazed.

This was one from today on my yellow flag iris..

[exo]

Possibly then it's a case of sitting still in one spot & observing a single bush/flower ?,
rather than dashing about chasing insects buzzing around, too fast to see,
let alone have a chance of it settling & being able to photo it.

Trouble is every time I try that, the interesting insect goes to the other flower

Must say this has been a massive year for bumble bees & bees generally,
wish I could say the same for butterflies.

The other thing I was wondering about was I can see the flowering mint is by
far the most favoured plant (bees of all types),
even better then the buddlia grove & single-dahlias masses, although the latter are very busy :




Anyway the question is is it a good idea to go mono-culture
& fill the garden with just flowering mint perhaps?

[King Edward]

Originally Posted by exo

Anyway the question is is it a good idea to go mono-culture & fill the garden with just flowering mint perhaps?

No, plant plenty of variety. Although, it is a good idea to plant decent quantities/blocks of individual flowers, like with the mint. Depends how much space you have really - if it's a small garden, a few blocks of really good species flowering at different times (early/late spring/summer etc.) might well give better value than a scatter of lots of individual different plants.

To spot more, try getting very close to the vegetation. Lie on the ground even, see what's crawling in the grass. A bramble bush in the sun is always full of insects, spiders, harvestmen, especially when it's flowering/fruiting.

Edit: Was going to say, I remember once photographing an ox-eye daisy flower, with the macro lens set up on a tripod, when looking down the camera I noticed a tiny assassin-type bug walk out its hiding place of the centre of the flower onto one of the petals and stab a tiny aphid with its rostrum. If I hadn't been so intently looking at the flower, this would have gone completely unnoticed.

[Jason Claxton]

I spend a lot of time looking(successfully) for insects on umbellifers such as Hogweed,Cow Parsley ,and Hemlock water-dropwort is an insect magnet.

[exo]

Sounds like it's a question of dedicating some significant amount of time specifically
for looking carefully at the different flowers then,
rather than just casually fitting in a few minutes of observation now & then.

Variety is good then, maybe also cultivate more wild flowers perhaps ?,
mind you my last attempt at a wild-flower micro-meadow got swamped with
one type of grass which was already there.

Was not chuffed cos I spent more then £50 on the seeds, next time I'll
remove the top layer, sterilize it and put it back before sowing seeds.

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by exo

Variety is good then, maybe also cultivate more wild flowers perhaps ?, mind you my last attempt at a wild-flower micro-meadow got swamped with one type of grass which was already there. Was not chuffed cos I spent more then £50 on the seeds, next time I'll remove the top layer, sterilize it and put it back before sowing seeds.

There's a lot of confusion about wild flowers versus 'wild flower meadows'. The idealised wildflower meadow is a product of very specific environmental conditions and very specific agricultural management. Certainly a 'wild flower meadow' is an important environmental resource but it is by no means always the most productive model to follow when creating habitat, particularly at the smaller scale.

For invertebrate benefit perrenials, shrubs and small trees are by far the best plant forms to introduce and annuals can largely be ingnored, although there are some valuable bienniels to consider. As a very rough guide to speicies choice there's a long running thread on the WAB Gardening forum which lists observation o by season of high nectar plants Which plant in your garden attracted the most bees today?

For targetting species The Postcode Plants Database - Natural History Museum and RHS and The Wildlife Trusts - Gardening With Wildlife in Mind.

Where the interest is invertebrates a key consideration is the need to provide food sources for both adults and larvae - so in the case of hoverflies for example not only are some specific flower forms needed - compositae/Asteraceae - but plants that host aphids are also required (Viburnum, Elder) , or in the case of several butterflies - nectar sources plus various grass species.

In my experience it can take a couple of years for invertebrate polulations to bild in a garden, particularly where the surrounding area is urban and the predominant garden regime is monculture or hard landscaping. That said I had success in just one year with Common Blue butterflies going from egg to adult, simply by planting Great Birdsfoot Trefoil.

I'd say basic principles are - long running flowering season, wide plant variety and an area of grassed refuge which is cut no more than twice a year - Autumn and early Spring, plus areas of never disturbed refuge such as a hedge base. In broad terms plant types should include a variety of Lamiaceae (Labiatae), Asteraceae and Caryophyllaceae -( mints, daisies and pinks , to which I would add Fabaceae in the form of vetch (in larger gardens broom and gorse). Plants of the Boraginaceae can als be important but in my view are rather space consuming relative to the flower benefit - the exception being lungwort which is an important early flowerer.

If were constrained by budget and starting from scratch, I'd buy as much as I could afford as plugs and grow these on in pots, plus seeds of lavender, Oxeye Daisy, Foxglove, Fever Few and clove pinks - all of which are very easy to propogate in quantity.

CM

[exo]

Excellent post CM, sounds like a good recipe for invertebrate nurture.

Yes, I see that a wild-flower meadow is a specialised set/mix,
but supposedly a quick means to a reasonable end though (I hope).

Not too sure I've got room for larvae food-areas as well,
apart from nettles & other weeds,
can supply aphids no problem, seen several hoverfly larvae this year

Got some undisturbed areas between pond & fence,
mostly a mix of ground-elder and many other wild greens
but this is mainly a young frog/newt sanctuary,
so may have mixed blessings for invertbrates.
Don't do lawn-grass of any type - seems a waste of space to me.

My current mix is mints / single-dahlias / buddlias / trailing-lobelias,
all of which flower all summer and beyond.
Must get some more lavender - had to remove most as it got to woody.

I shall look at the posts you linked & see if I can get some more inspiration
for a better plan for the garden next year, thanks for making the effort

[Jason Green]

Why not beat? Oak is incredibly productive when doing so, as is sun-facing Hawthorn in my experience.

Neither damage invertebrates, and will massively add to your insect-count