Dandelions for dinner
Dandelions are a feast for early nectar and pollen feeders.
If you have Taraxacum officinale in your garden, look after them; they are a valuable food source for dozens of species of invertebrates. Here are just a few of them:
1 
2 
3 
4
[1] a marmalade hoverfly and possibly a leafcutter bee; [2] common pollen beetles; [3] two species of ants, Formica rufa and Lasius niger and an otherwise unidentified slug; [4] an Andrena species of solitary bee.
All pictures by Suzanne Humphries
Southwick Country Park Nature Reserve 
Thanks for the advice. I had previously tried to discourage dandelions but now I’ll allow them to stay!
Please do, Barbara; if you look carefully there will be all kinds of creatures in your dandelions, feeding or collecting food for their larvae. The trick to dandelion control is dead-heading.