After a morning of gardening, we both took time to wander about enjoying the results of our labour.

Two southern hawker dragonflies were newly emerged on bur reed stems in the pond.

While I was sitting on one of our garden benches, I noticed this small fruit fly eyeing me with his bright blue eyes. This is a new species for the garden, Acanthiophilus helianthi.

Just opposite the bench, this knot grass moth caterpillar was munching on a red clover.

Finally, back at the pond, a Dewick's Plusia moth was going from flower to flower. I've only previously recorded this moth once before, back in September 2012 just shortly after we moved to Germany.

It was a much cooler day today and there was a lot less going on in the garden. Just three photos; a new cranefly species, Tipula fascipennis, a photo of our first Alpine newt eft and a new shield bug, Enoplops scapha.

I've been seeing some very small brown bee flies recently but haven't managed to get a photo before today. This one landed for long enough for me to get a photo which allowed me to ID this as Bombylius minor.

Another new species of hoverfly for the garden was this Paragus haemorrhous.

The red admiral caterpillar I collected a couple of weeks back emerged today. That's a 10 day pupation period!!

Another new species of moth was sitting in the climbing bramble over one of our arches. This is Cydia fagiglandana. It's got no connection with bramble - so it was probably just hiding out the day.

I've recorded Eurygaster testudinaria bug in the garden before, but this one was a much duller colour.

Lastly, we saw several of these wasps gathering mud from our pond. This is an invasive species, Sceliphron curvatum, also known as the Asian Mud Dauber Wasp. It was first recorded in Europe in 1979 and has since become widespread. It doesn't appear to be a problem though. It isn't aggressive or a major pest.

Along with the numerous peacock, brimstone and high brown fritillary butterflies, there are are lot of small and large whites. I spotted a small white laying eggs on one of our plants.

This Ant Damsel Bug is a new species for me - it was on nettle. I've probably seen this before and just thought it was an ant.

We see a lot of Volucella pellucens flies every year. This is the first one we've seen this year.

I'm continuing my search for a dark green fritillary, but I'm still only getting high brown fritillaries.

I did see a new beetle species and a new moth species today though - a larch ladybird and a Mompha raschkiella respectively. The M.raschkiella was particularly pleasing as it was on our rosebay willowherb, which is its sole larval food plant.

I was doing a bit of weeding in the garden when I suddenly saw that my arms were covered with blood. Well it actually wasn't blood. I'd been handling some tansy leaves and hadn't realised that there was a major infestation with Crimson Tansy Aphids. Lots had fallen onto the thyme in the path which explains the first photo.