Mastodawn

As for this one, it's very likely an ichneumon wasp, but being more specific within that huge family is difficult.

There are 3,600 species in Germany alone, so narrowing it down is tough. There's a very similar picture shown for Hercus fontinalis on Wikipedia, but in other pictures, it looks quite different.

Any wasp experts in the house?

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Mark McCaughrean 9h ago

And then there's even smaller spider that was dangling at the end of a thread of silk in the breeze before briefly landing on me.

Likely a juvenile from genus Philodroma, the running crab spiders, & perhaps either P. albidus (🇩🇪 Heller Flachstrecker or P. dispar (🇩🇪 Zweifarbflachstrecker).

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Mark McCaughrean 10h ago

Harder to photo & ID is this much smaller metallic fly, perched on the edge of a tulip.

From the shape & sheen, it's likely in genus Psilopa (shore or brine flies in English; Uferfliege in 🇩🇪), & one plausible option for the species would be P. nitidula.

That said, we're quite some way from any sea or brine, so maybe it's something else entirely 😬

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Mark McCaughrean 10h ago

Still slowly crawling towards full-blown spring here – mostly cloudy & not that warm yet 🤷‍♂️

But still some things to see in the garden, starting with this pretty fly.

From the colouration, & arrangement of bristles on the thorax & around the eyes, my best guess is a female common European greenbottle (Lucilia sericata; 🇩🇪 Goldfliege / Grüne Goldfliege).

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Mark McCaughrean 1d ago

Just as the sun was setting over the valley, I had brief glimpses of a couple more familiar species for the first time this year, catching the last rays:

1. A greater bee fly (Bombylius major; 🇩🇪 Großer Wollschwebe);

2. A Holcostethus sphacelatus shield bug; 🇩🇪 Offener Lorch).

I'm sure I'll see a lot more of both as spring continues.

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Mark McCaughrean 1d ago

And with its mind on different business, perhaps, I saw this little ant running around.

It was tiny, around 2mm long, & hard to capture photos of, but the most likely ID is Temnothorax unifasciatus, in the Myrmicinae sub-family.

They exhibit altruistic behaviour, withdrawing from the colony when close to death, to avoid infecting other its relatives.

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Mark McCaughrean 1d ago

It's not only the bees that are searching for food, mind you – this small gnat seems to have been out foraging too.

It's a wood gnat, genus Sylvicola, & from the shape of its head & eyes, along with the three-stripe pattern on its thorax, my best guess would be S. fuscatus 🦟

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Mark McCaughrean 1d ago

The Sun is out & so are many bees & drone flies, but there's not a lot to eat yet 🌞

So the western honey bees (Apis mellifera; 🇩🇪 Westliche Honigbiene) are clustering around the dandelions & tulips, though the few other flowers out only offer slimmer pickings thus far.

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Mark McCaughrean 2d ago

Crawled around on the floor to rescue this tiny little ladybird from being squished on the front steps of @mpi_astro today.

Resulting in some people walking past me & asking if I was ok 😬👍

It's a new one for me: an eleven-spotted ladybird (Ceratomegilla undecimnotata; Hügel-Marienkäfer in 🇩🇪), & it's apparently quite rare. All the more reason to save it.

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Mark McCaughrean 3d ago

A reminder – dandelions provide vital early food for many insect species, & this tiny bee was certainly making the most of the pantry.

Since it had its head in the pollen most of the time, I didn't get any good whole body shots, but from this & other pictures, I suspect it's a sweat bee, genus Lasioglossum, perhaps L. calceatum.

Nice picture anyway 🤷‍♂️

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