The air is a buzzin'
Summer insects take to the air
Joan
7/23/20243 min read
All spring and summer long we have been querying the lack of insect life. "Things aren't like they used to be," we moan. Butterflies have become scarce, and solitary, whilst my favourite insect, the carpenter bee, barely seems to visit us at all. Yes, we did see an invasion of masonry bees in spring, but where are the others? Apart from the odd bumble bee, or a few small honey bees , the lavender remains largely unvisited. We have recently kept our grass unmown in order to encourage insects like grasshoppers and crickets , but alas, even there , all is largely silent. But in early July the weather began to warm up significantly, and the cicadas returned, albeit very late, setting up their deafening daily chorus from the trees. And slowly , more butterflies and other flying insects have begun to appear. Whilst numbers have definitely not returned to normal, here are a few of the insects that have returned to feed in our garden. Most of the photographs have been taken by Claire Andrews, a friend from England who has often spent holidays with her family in our gîte. You may remember seeing other photographs of hers in a previous blog.
Moths:
Butterflies:
Bees:
Other flying insects:
I thank Claire for these lovely photographs, and celebrate this wonderful display of insects. But I still cannot help feeling concerned that in spite of their abundance, things are not as they were. Some species, like the elephant hawk moth, we no longer see at all, whilst there is no doubt that in general, numbers are diminishing. Where are all our crickets, our dragon flies or bees that we used to see in great number? Meanwhile , in Britain, five protesters from the ' Just Stop Oil ' pressure group' have been jailed for four and five years. Surely, climate change must play an enormous part in this changing pattern of wildlife. So, are we crazy?
