Cloudy with prolonged showers.
Devilsbit Scabious has just opened. That tells me it's about time for the fly-killing Entomophthora fungus to start appearing. For some reason, I find lots of infected hoverflies dead on these flowerheads.
A couple of shots of one of the Tenthredo sp. sawflies nectaring (and hunting) on Angelica.
The Willow Cabbage Gall - Rhabdophaga cinerea - is now evident. It stops the growth of the branch, thereby compressing all the leaves into a hard, cabbage-shaped bunch. The gall-creating wasp then eats the leaves during the autumn and winter. The left-hand image shows how much the branch has been reduced, and the right-hand image shows the compression (and also the fact that the midrib of the leaf is much wider than expected.).
