Sweat bee

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In contrast to yesterday, the weather this morning was dazzling. I had a lot of desk work to do, and ploughed through it with gritted teeth, desperately hoping that it would still be fine by the time I’d finished. I managed to free myself from my study around lunch time, and hit the garden with camera in hand; the warm, humid air was absolutely teeming with bugs, but very few of them were in the mood to settle for long enough for me to take a decent photo.

An exception was this tiny sweat bee, which is a Lasioglossum female, most probably L. calceatum. This is an interesting species because in the north of the UK it’s solitary, and in the south social – and in the Midlands I suppose it could be either, but my guess would be that this individual is a worker from a small colony. She’s very worn and ragged, and probably coming to the end of her life, so I tried not to disturb her meal as she ate from the forget-me-not.

Having bagged a few bug shots I did a couple of hours work in the back garden, edging and fine weeding the long south border which R has been rough weeding over the past few days. I created my edge curve as I went along, which was probably a mistake as I’m very definitely not someone who can draw a perfect circle freehand – so I’ll probably feel the need to tinker with it tomorrow. Nonetheless, we’ve made good progress and we’re feeling pretty pleased with ourselves.