Tags
bluebottle, Drone fly, hoverflies, importance of ivy to late summer insects, ivy flowers, marmalade hoverfly, Red Admiral
Ivy plants are flowering locally and are drawing in crowds of insects, particularly hoverflies but also bumblebees and butterflies. The flowers are not completely out yet, so I’m sure that there will be more to see shortly, if we have some sunshine, but the following are what I’ve spotted so far.
15/9/11-Red Admiral
Ivy flowers are produced from late summer until late autumn, the individual flowers are small and clustered in 3–5 cm diameter umbels. They are greenish-yellow in colour and very rich in nectar and an important late autumn food source for many insects.
A bright shiny bluebottle fly
The most numerous insects drawn to the flowers were from various species of hoverfly.
Tapered Drone Fly-Eristalis pertinax
15/9/11-A larger yellow and black hoverfly, not yet identified
15/9/11-Hoverfly-syrphus ribesii
Marmalade Hoverfly-Episyrphus balteatus
Wonderful pictures and I didn’t realise ivy was so important for insects to feed on. I’ll confess I just thought of it as a bit of a tree strangler so thanks for putting me right! Cute blog 🙂
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Thanks for looking in, I’m very happy you found something you liked. Ivy can be invasive and is actually banned from being planted in parts of the US and I think Canada.In Europe it is also the food plant of Holly Blue butterfly larvae as well as a nectar provider, but it does need to be kept under control.
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