Hunting wasps

There are few things reminding me more of the end of summer than hunting wasps. Today, a buzzing ball of fury fell on the pavement in front of me. A common wasp, Vespula vulgaris, holding on a male Eristalis dronefly, desperately trying to escape. The wasp held onto the dronefly's legs, chewing three of them and a wing off, and rendering the dronefly defenceless.

A loose leg and a wing are visible

I was amazed by the determination of the wasp, which was thrown about by the hoverfly while it was only holding by the hoverfly's abdomen.A very short clip shows moments after they landed.

March already

March always takes me by surprise. I realised today that the end of winter is within sight, and it hasn't really felt like a proper winter, as it has been very mild, with a scattering of frosts, although very windy and overcast. With the sun out today, a dronefly Eristalis tenax stirred up and alternatively visited the Laurustinus on the shade and sunbathed in the wall opposite. A pack of young wolf spiders enjoyed the sun too. I wandered around and realised the garden is ready for my favouring early spring invertebrate, Anthophora plumipes, the hairy footed flower bee. Males should be appearing by the end of this week, weather permitting. I photographed their favourite flowers at bee-eye view. I hope they don't make me wait too long.

Pardosa sp wolf spider sunbathing

White dead-nettle

Rosemary

Muscari

Narcissus tete-a-tete

Lungwort

Primroses

Spring at last!

The last couple of days have seen the temperatures finally rising over the freezing conditions we've had during March and early April. The lovely, milder, sunny weather we had today meant  I had many 'firsts' of the year. Until today this year, I had not seen a butterfly and I had only seen the occasional bees and bumblebees. Today Garden Ants, Lasius niger, were active in the garden, a clumsy female Dronefly enjoyed the sun and walked over the daffodil flowers feeding (above). Two male Anthophora plumipes patrolled around flowers, and even the first female of the year payed a short visit too. The males occasionally fed on wallflowers, hyacinths and wild primroses.
I saw my first butterfly of the year today, a Small Tortoiseshell, unfortunately, could get no photos, as my cat found her before me and chased her away.

This queen wasp, Vespula vulgaris, also first of the year, got in the conservatory.

A Tegenaria with its egg sac on a stilt. It is under the lid of the water butt, so I guess the photo is upside down

A male Anthophora plumipes rests for a few seconds on foxglove leaves.

My cat becomes quite the entomologist when flying insects start to appear. She often alerts me of insects in the garden, but also disturbs them when they try to feed, to my annoyance! Later in the year, she becomes disinterested, and I can relax and watch insects at my leisure.

The Footballer hoverfly

From mid April up to October, you might come across this handsome hoverfly resting on leaves or feeding on flowers either close or away from water. This species is Helophilus pendulus, the commonest of its genus in the UK, distinguished by other species by the parallel yellow stripes in the thorax, black stripe on its face and the mainly yellow hind tibia. The genus Helophilus, which is a wasp mimic, is closely related to Eristalis, the droneflies, which are bee mimics. Both genera share a rat-tailed aquatic or semiaquatic larvae. I found this female sitting on a sage leaf after a light shower. She was cold and reluctant to fly, and with a bit of coaching, she climbed on the white bowl and let me take her portrait.

More awakenings

 The early spring temperatures continued today. Ants were scouting out of their nests, sage leafhoppers were active and honeybees and droneflies enjoyed the Laurustinus. I waited until the bee and the dronefly visited the same inflorescence to take the above shot. I wonder if the Laurustinus flowers change colour when they are pollinated, in the same way as the Horse Chestnuts, white when fresh and turning red when already pollinated and stop producing nectar. 

We counted over 100 7-spot ladybirds in the garden. Some were eating aphids on the spurge.

The entrance of the burrow of a large Amaurobius spider under a garage roof. If you click to embiggen you can see the remains of a wasp a Harlequin and some wings I cannot identify, possibly from bluebottles.

A green shieldbug, Palomena prasina, on its dark winter attire came out of its overwintering refuge.

 Wolf spiders enjoyed the sun on the sunny side of the garden.

Spring unfurling

 We rose to quasi tropical temperatures for mid February today, reaching 15.5 oC in this clear sunny day. Many overwintering bugs woke up, stretched and started buzzing about. Tens, hundreds of 7 spot ladybirds everywhere, coming out from folded, dried up leaves and positioning themselves on sunny spots. I disturbed a green caterpillar while gardening and woodlice were also active.
 The garden is still very sparse in the flower front. Today the first tete-a-tete daffodil opened and there are a few primroses. That is a problem if you rely on nectar and pollen for energy. Two droneflies (Eristalis tenax) including the female on the top shot fed on honeydew on the ivy. Notice its long, dark proboscis licking the leaf and the spots of honeydew on the leaf on the foreground. Later one of them flew to the Lauristinus, which is now in full bloom, where it joined a honeybee and another early hoverfly species (Meliscaeva auricollis).  Marmalade flies (Episyrphus balteatus) were also about.

Dronefly on Laurustinus

A dead queen wasp

Marmalade hoverfly, Episyrphus balteatus

The hoverfly Meliscaeva auricollis also in Laurustinus

Buzzing laurustinus

 I planted a laurustinus (Viburnum tinus) bush on a large pot a couple of years ago and placed it opposite the window where we eat, a sheltered patio area. I did not realised at the time what a great location this was and what a fantastic bug magnet this bush is. One of the best features of lauristinus is its long winter flowering season (from October to May). My new vantage point has also revealed that their pollen and nectar rich flowers are often visited by honeybees, hoverflies and droneflies during mild winter days, as you can see in the photos below, all taken a few days ago. Come spring they are also visited by butterflies like the Holly Blue and early bumblebee Bombus pratorum queens. As this hardy bush does not mind shady conditions, their pink-white flowers are a good way of lightening dark corners of the garden.

A poor shot of Episyrphus balteatus

Eristalis sp. Dronefly.

The one on top of the post is possibly Meliscaeva auricollis, thank you Geoff F from WAB for the tentative ID given the difficult angle.

Twelve bugs of Christmas

Today we woke up to a mild, sunny day and I was pleasantly surprised by the diversity of active bugs about. I made a count of species and when I got to twelve I was reminded of the traditional carol and made up a buggy version:

12 ladybirds walking | 11 winter-gnats dancing |10 honeybees buzzing |9 bluebottles basking | 8 leafhoppers leaping | 7 woodlice hiding | 6 hoverflies flying | 5 snails sleeping | 4 spiders weaving | 3 harlequins | 2 drone flies | and a bumblebee on ivy

The honeybees in the local wildlife garden were coming out tripping over each other and ladybirds (7 spots mostly but also harlequins and 22 spots) were awaken by the mild temperature. I counted 5 spider species outside (Tegenaria, Zygiella, Pholcus, Steatoda, Linyphia). The main surprise was the bumblebee worker, extremely fast and active and with pollen baskets full with pollen.

Here is a slideshow of bugs seen and photographed today

Dronefly portrait

I photographed this female dronefly, Eristalis tenax, sunbathing on the Phlomis bush. I like the soft green of the leaves and I played with the depth of field to make the background blurry. If you download the large version of the photo you can see yellow pollen on the fly's legs and some has transferred to the leaves. The only flowers nearby were a few crocuses, so I guess the dronefly had been feeding on them before.

Deceitful drone-flies

Drone-fly

Honey bee

Today we had a beautiful springy afternoon, a brief respite in this cold winter. I saw a drone-fly, Eristalis tenax, feeding on a clump of snowdrops. Drone-flies are a textbook example of Batesian mimicry: a harmless species resembling a stinging one so that predators are deceived and avoid it. Adult drone-flies are hover-flies that resemble honeybees in color, size and even in their flight behaviour. As adults they also feed on flowers - even the same species - making the similarity very precise. But, is there any evidence that predators actually avoid drone-flies mistaking them for bees? In a clever experiment Golding and colleagues actually investigated this using humans - biology university students and schoolchildren. They tested how good they were telling bees, bumblebees and wasps apart, and from their mimic hover-flies using picture plates and questionnaires. Their results show that humans were generally bad taxonomists, as half of the students could not identify a bee, even when they were biology students!. However, the study concluded that more people thought that the mimics would sting than control flies (not resembling bees, wasps or bumblebees), but fewer people thought the mimics would sting than the actual hymenopteran models. This shows that the mimicry works although is not completely effective. An interesting result was that students who had been previously stung were better at identifying the hymenopterans as stinging and were better at telling wasps, bees and bumblebees apart, indicating that experience is an important factor. The study provides the first experimental evidence that mimicry in drone-flies is effective and might help them avoid predation, not only by humans trying to swat or spray them, but by their natural bird predators.
 The students in the previous study were asked to look at small photos of flies and bees for a short period of time, just like any predator who has just seconds to decide if to snatch the insect or let it go. A close up examination of the drone-fly however, easily reveals its nature. Its antennae are quite short compared with the honey-bee, it has got a single pair of wings and typical large fly eyes, also, it lacks polled baskets on the rear legs.

Ivy fest!

The end of September is the time of the year when I like to visit an old ivy growing on a south-facing brick wall. Today was the first day I saw it flowering for good. Ivy (Hedera helix) is an unusual plant in that its flowering season starts with the beginning of autumn. Given the scarcity of alternative sources or nectar at a this crucial time of the year - when many insects are getting ready for winter dormancy, egg laying or migration, this marks a food bonanza for many insects, the final feast of the year. Drone flies (Eristalis) and green and bluebottles, hover-flies, wasps, honey bees, queen bumblebees, butterflies (Red Admirals, Small Tortoishells, Painted Ladies, Large and Small Whites, Commas) buzz on the green-yellow ivy flowers.

Myathropa florea

Helophilus pendulus

Syrphus sp.

Bluebottle, Calliphora vomitoria

Eristalis tenax

Above, an illustration of the diversity of hoverflies who use Ivy

Red Admiral

Comma

And all them must keep watch for garden spiders, who never say no to a juicy hover-fly...

By the beginning of December the Ivy flowers are gone and the berries start to grow.

 This is one of the last ivy blooms of the year, with a late red admiral (photo taken 30/10/2006):