As for the promised killer, it's our friend the ringed assassin bug (🇩🇪 Geringelte Mordwanze), advertising its trade in deep reds & blacks.

The Latin name is Rhynocoris annulatus, & you can see why – it has a long, powerful proboscis with which it injects prey with a liquid that dissolves their innards, to then be sucked out.

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#BugOfTheDay 🐞
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The other fly is an old favourite, one of the most common syrphid hoverflies.

It's a female thick-legged hoverfly (Syritta pipiens). In German, it's the Kleine Mistbiene, which hints at its other name in English, the compost hoverfly.

The thick and spiky thighs are easy to see in these pictures.

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#BugOfTheDay 🐞
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This is also a sawfly, albeit not quite as cooperative photographically – I only managed this one shot.

It's in genus Athalia, the gloriously-named tigress sawflies: in particular, I think it's a bugle tigress (Athalia cordata). It doesn't have a specific name in German, but would be called a Pflanzenwespe.

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#Photography 📷️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️
#BugOfTheDay 🐞
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And finally, hopefully something less strange or controversial – a large buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris; 🇩🇪 Dunkle Erdhummel).

They've been flying around the garden for quite some time, but rarely staying still for long enough to get half-decent pictures.

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#BugOfTheDay 🐞
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At first, I thought this tattered butterfly would be easy to identify, despite only getting this one poor shot before it flew away.

Looks like it's genus Lycaena & specifically the small copper, L. phlaeas. But the pattern of black marks on the forewing isn't quite right, so I wonder if it's just an aberration or another species.

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#Photography 📷️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️
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That spider isn't the only thing going under false pretences in the garden today.

This is a nomad bee, a genus evolved to impersonate wasps – likely Gooden's nomad bee (Nomada goodeniana; 🇩🇪 Goodens Wespenbiene), although I've learned from @albertcardona that identifying arthropods from photos alone is more fraught than I expected.

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#Photography 📷️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️️
#BugOfTheDay 🐞
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