BACKYARD BUGS, BUTTERFLIES AND BEES!

Look closely around your garden and you might be surprised at what colourful critters are residing or visiting.  

These are Cotton Harlequin bugs and they love hibiscus. The orange are females and here one has laid a LOT of eggs.

The males are smaller and perhaps even more striking as you see above.

I love blue banded bees. They make such a loud buzzing. Here one almost seems to be comparing its beak with the tomato flower. 

This honey bee has collected quite a bit of pollen from what I now class as a weed, Seaside daisy, which has gone berserk in my garden. Once you've got it, it's a hard job to get rid of it.

This is just one of a few ?house flies? that were seemingly pollinating the daisies. They don't look like hover flies which love those daisies.

A female orchard swallowtail was resting up.

 Sleepy small green banded butterfly must've slept in. It didn't fly off when I came close the other morning.

Another of the small blues, a white line-blue. 

This small and slightly tattered brown butterfly was more colourful flitting around but I was too slow to get a shot with the wings open. Some kind of skipper I think.

I present the Splendid Ochre butterfly. Quite small but cute isn't it?