Another garden miscellany

Restrictions of movement mean that I am paying more attention to the garden and its occupants. The glorious weather continues and so I am able to mooch about in comfort.


The front garden is ablaze with fritillaries, narcissi, aubretias and tulips but the helianthemums are still weeks away from flowering. Nevertheless it was this last-named plant which set me a small puzzle today. Some of the leaves at the shoot-tips were bunched together and clearly something was inside.

This cluster of leaves on a helianthemum demanded investigation.

Our garden, Stefen Hill, Daventry. 26 March, 2020

I was pretty certain it was a micro-moth and I was hoping that it would be one of the uncommon helianthemum specialists. I split open one of the affected shoots and out dropped a caterpillar. So yes, it was a micro-moth but an examination showed that it was a Light Brown Apple Moth, Epiphysas postvittana. Despite its name it is a polyphagous species and therefore likely to be found on a wide range of shrubby plants. Last year it made a mess of our Strawberry Tree.

The species involved proved to be the Light Brown Apple Moth. I placed

 it on a work-surface for closer examination.

The yellow tulips are full of tiny pollen beetles. These are tricky to identify but I am pretty certain that they are Meligethes aeneus.

Oddly enough an even smaller beetle, a weevil,turned out to be more straightforward. It was Ceutorhynchus typhae but, at barely 2 mm long, was beyond the capabilities of my simple camera. I have borrowed a picture from the internet.

Ceutorhynchus typhae




It is widespread and is common, but is easily overlooked. The long 'snout' - the rostrum - is typical of the genus.


Our garden is humming with insects in the summer, with thymes, lavender and scabious attracting a wealth of insects, but currently only the aubretia is being targeted and has attracted a number of Dark-edged Bee Flies, Bombylius major. The 'dark edge' refers to the leading edge if the wings and the photograph below shows that the insect only has two wings compared with the four of a true bee.

Dark-edged bee Fly on bare earth at Byfield today, 27 March, 2020

The pasque flowers, Pulsatilla vulgaris, and tulips, lovely though they are, have no nectar to offer.


Speaking of pasque flowers, the first ones to bloom were the reddish, non-native forms from (probably) the European Alps. The latest ones now open are our native form, still found in the west of Northamptonshire.

The pasque flowers currently blooming are a rich purple in colour.

Our garden in Stefen Hill, Daventry. 26 March, 2020



I would have expected insects to visit these flowers if only for the pollen, but so far I have seen none.