Speckled Green Cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima) - Female

Speckled Green Cricket (Leptophyes punctatissima) - Female, originally uploaded by Pipsissiwa.
Identification via Chinery / McGavin / Marshall & Haes.

Speckled Green Cricket Nymph (Leptophyes punctatissima)

Speckled Green Cricket Nymph, originally uploaded by Pipsissiwa.
Identification via Chinery / McGavin / Marshall & Haes.

These crickets are a common sight in my garden from mid-spring. This is an immature individual. This one was drinking from a rain droplet on the leaf.

Speckled Green Cricket Nymph (Leptophyes punctatissima)

Speckled Green Cricket Nymph, originally uploaded by Pipsissiwa.
Identification via Chinery / McGavin / Marshall & Haes.

When very young these crickets are extremely darkly and densely spotted, but this reduces with each moult until they are primarily green with faint spotting. They are a nightmare to photograph well because as soon as you get close they instinctively turn their back. Sneaky techniques have to be used to make them face the camera, which don't always work :)

Bumblebee

Bumblebee, originally uploaded by Pipsissiwa.

This was one of those lucky shots, capturing this lovely bee on approach to a penstemon flower, tongue out ready. They love to tunnel deep into these tubular flowers to reach the nectar and getting covered in pollen as they do.

Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium manicatum)

Wool Carder Bee (Anthidium manicatum), originally uploaded by Pipsissiwa.

This bee collects fibres from woolly stemmed plants to line its nest.

Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris)

Bumblebee (Bombus terrestris), originally uploaded by Pipsissiwa.

This very large bee was drying out after some rain. I took advantage of its wooziness to get some smashing photos, and it even crawled onto my hand before flying off.

Honey Bee

Bee, originally uploaded by Pipsissiwa.