Now, where’s the best place in the world to discover an entirely new species?
Basically, your own garden.
You may say, “Ah ha, there won’t be anything in my garden that hasn’t
been discovered.” You would be amazed. In 1971, Jennifer Owen, a
biologist, did a very long-term study of her ordinary garden in a
suburban house in Leicester. She discovered 533 species of ichneumon
wasp, just that family of parasitic wasp. Fifteen of these had never
been recorded in Britain; four of them were completely new to science.
In a suburban garden. So, in your garden, if you have a garden, there
will be things.
Gilbert White, the naturalist, said that nature is so full and so varied
that if you want to find the place with the most variety, it’s the
place you most study. It almost doesn’t matter: Just take a piece of
land and look at it hard enough.– Stephen Fry, QI, G-series, Episode 1 “Gardens”
The above moment from QI has stuck with me for years: I think of it almost every time I am outside.
Accordingly, here are some of the bees I’ve observed in my garden. I’ve identified a few, but not with much confidence. I am hoping to get a proper book that goes into more depth about the 250+ species here in Denmark.
I have recorded almost 500 species of plants and animals in the garden to date, and over half of them are moths. Gardens are amazing reservoirs of diversity. Really.
Kimchi and Justice 