Subcoccinella vigintiquattuorpunctata. !! :)

I don't remember whether March came in like a lamb but it has gone out like a lion. The weather was so extreme today that I got out my Weather Forecasting The Country Way book by Robin Page. We have had sunshine, showers, torrential rain, gale force winds and a beautiful rainbow.

I went hunting for bugs on the sheltered south-facing wall of number thirteen glasshouse. I saw three different kinds of jumping spider and photographed a minute one with its even smaller fly prey. Spiders were basking in the clump of wild primroses and I mistook a pied shieldbug for a bird dropping at first.

I was delighted to see that the beautiful, sky blue, first flowers of green alkanet are open. My pic is, I think, of a common but rarely seen, tiny, twenty four spot ladybird on alkanet in a shower. These little bugs are only 2mm long and have a slight furriness. Unlike the larger ladybirds they eat plants.