Orange Tip male x 1. Orange Tip female x 1. Green-veined White male x 1.
Bright and warm, with a sprinkle of drizzle.
Bluebells are fully open now. No white ones yet.
Ramsons has also opened and its fungal rust - Puccinia sessilis - has appeared.. The alternate host for this rust is, astonishingly, Phalaris - Canary Reed Grass, which I haven't found anywhere near this location.
There were plenty of these little Ichneumonids scurrying all over the place.
I saw a male Orange Tip butterfly two days ago, but found these eggs before I found the female. Notice that each flowerhead has a single egg: they're cannibals and will consume each other if they meet.
The eggs start white, but will turn orange within a day or two.
When the female has mated she rejects further males with this characteristic 'tail-up' attitude. The attendant male was not to be rebuffed, however, and made several approaches - all unsuccessful.
She managed to rest when the male eventually lost interest, so I got a couple of close-ups:
I have a double aggregation of mining bees on a south-facing bank. All of these bees make solitary tunnels, but they often nest very close to each other.
The two species involved are Andrena cinerea (left) and Halictus rubicundus (right).
Hydrothassa marginella (left) is a beetle associated with Buttercups. On the right we have another little (6mm) Solitary Bee, probably Lassioglossum sp.
Lastly, a Green-veined White, with no spots on the inner wing, so probably a male.