orange ladybird?

Hi Fran ...
My eyes aren't that good, but I think it might be a bee.
Here's that link I gave you on another pic ...
http://bumblebeeconservation.org/about-bees/photo-gallery/1

Some of the bees are sort of orange and black !

I did have this pic labelled "bee or ladybird" but thoght I could detect dark spots on the orange, which suggested the latter rather than the former. However, I'm just guessing, and probably guessing wildly, so I'll follow that link, thanks. I did save it from last time, but it's easier to follow it from here than go looking for that!

ps: if this was the bee that I thoght I was aiming at I need to sharpen up!!

It does seem to have a spot but its a bumble bee and its on a flowering currant bush rather than a quince.

I agree with Steragram on both counts Fran. It's often difficult to id bumble bees - some species are very similar with only slight variations.

Fran, it is a bumblebee. I love bees, especially the fluffy bumblebees.

It must still be exciting for you to see what you have in your photo's though Fran, you keep at it, because you are listening and snapping away you probably will find things that we would miss...

thanks Stera. I thopught I'd taken this pic on my "shrub 3" which had been preiously identified by GoYers as a flworing Quince, so that's what I changed the pic titles to. I'll have to gp go through my "definitive shrub" pics to match what shrub it actually is - that's what the pics were meant to do!

thanks Scottish and Alex for the confirmation.

thanks Lincs. It is exciting, but also a bit frustrating because I'm floating in a sea of ignorance!

The quince flowers are flat like very small saucers. The currant flowers hang down like little tassels. You probably got the captions mixed up.

very likely! I did take most pics of bees on the qunice, but remember now that I did hear a buzzing from the sbrub next door and tried that one too. this might well be that.

that's the prob with numbers as opposed to names, easy to mix!

The dangly pink flowers are ribes (Flowering currant) I think, as we have that, cut back drastically last year, so it is sulking this year. This can get rampant if allowed a free hand to shoot onwards and upwards.

I briefly saw a small pale orange lady bird recently Fran. Dashed to grab the camera but it had gone when I returned. We have some largish hover flies in the garden now. Rather strange to be large and so early. Odd things happen these days of probable climate change.

Thanks, Dorjac, that's another shrub I can take the number off and put a name on!

Strange times indeed - warmth-loving plants and insects moving further north, extending their ranges into areas where they'd never have survived before. And "imports" coming in via ports and airports, whch will spread like mad as they don't have any native predators in here ...

Back to ladybirds . . . you were wondering about a 'cannibal' one. I learnt last week that the ones we DON'T want in this country are the ones with masses of spots, and their wings look a dull orange. Let's hope you won't see any!

thanks, Sheila. fingers x'd. I'd read on BBC news that there was a new species moving in and munching the native species as well as more helpful diet.