Flying critters

28 Monday Feb 2022

Tags

Andrena flavipes, British bees, British wasps, Lasioglossum species, Vespula vulgaris

Though a cool breeze blew from the south east, yesterday was wonderfully sunny, so I planned my walk to check the more sheltered spots in the local landscape where I hoped I might find newly emerged flying critters. And I got lucky. As well as my first two butterflies of the year (Small tortoiseshell and Brimstone, both too distant for photos with the camera I had with me), I also found some solitary bees and a wasp.

Thanks to Liam Olds, of the Colliery Spoil Biodiversity Initiative, I can tell you the two bees above are both ‘female Lasioglossum sp. [species] (morio group but not possible to ID from pics)’ and the bee below is a ‘male Andrena flavipes by the looks’.

220228 andrena flavipes

And the wasp I found basking on a tree trunk is a Vespula vulgaris.

220228 vespula vulgaris

Face to face

10 Wednesday Nov 2021

Posted by sconzani in autumn, insects

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

British wasps, male wasps, Vespula vulgaris, wasp, wasps on ivy

A long section of the coastal path where I walked yesterday was lined with Ivy, covered in ripening clusters of berries … and wasps. It seemed like each nest of wasps (all Vespula vulgaris, as far as I could tell) had laid claim to its own bush, where they sat preening on leaves, wandered over the berries, or just snoozed, and I was able to get quite close for some photos.

211110 wasp (1)

I’ve just been reading on the really informative Eakringbirds website that ‘Many wasps found on flowers from August onwards will often be males. These tend to be more docile and slightly less active than workers and often make better photographic subjects’, and that was certainly the case for me yesterday.

211110 wasp (2)

319/366 Current critters

14 Saturday Nov 2020

Posted by sconzani in autumn, insects, spiders

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Araneus diadematus, British insects, Chrysoperla carnea, Common wasp, earwig, Garden spider, Lacewing, Vespula vulgaris

Just a few of the little critters I’ve come across this week …

201114 lacewing

I can’t be entirely sure but this is probably Chrysoperla carnea, Britain’s most common Lacewing. Their transparent wings lend these creatures a fragile air so I was surprised to see one still out and about as these Lacewings usually find a cosy spot indoors to hibernate come the autumn weather.

I think these are Common wasps (Vespula vulgaris) that I’m seeing frequently on and around Ivy, and basking in our rare glimpses of sunshine, but I don’t have any face-on shots to properly separate them from German wasps (Vespula germanica). At this time of year, these are likely to be male wasps, which apparently are not able to sting – only female queens and workers have the anatomy for that.

201114 earwig

We saw Earwigs hiding in umbellifer seedheads in a recent post (Insecting, 31 October). It seems they like to hide, though I’m not sure how effective this earwig’s hiding place is, its head tucked into a gorse seed but the length of its body exposed. Still, I doubt anyone – insect, bird or human – was going to argue with those pincers.

Spiders have been much in evidence lately. Garden spiders (Araneus diadematus) sit ready to pounce in their strategically strung webs, and, in the right photo, I only spotted the tiny, unidentified spider lurking under the Creeping thistle flower when I got home and started looking through my photos.

94/366 Curiosity

03 Friday Apr 2020

Posted by sconzani in insects, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

British wasps, Common wasp, Vespula vulgaris, wasp

This Common wasp (Vespula vulgaris), which was enjoying the warm sunshine on the front of the house this morning, seemed to be as curious about me as I was about it.

(Yes, the windows are a mess – I live in a flat in a Grade II listed building that’s well over 100 years old, and the windows, most of which still have Victorian glass in them, with all its imperfections, are in need of major repair. It’s a long and ongoing story.)