I cannot be described as an expert in anything let alone nature and wildlife. This blog has been inspired by reading of local bioblitzs'. However, this is more an account of a plodding marathon of the wildlife I encounter as I bumble about the UK.
Ruby-tailed Wasp
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Just outside the patio doors leading to the back garden we have a small Bay tree in a pot. It’s being doing well there in its south east aspect, and receives full sun for half the day. Although the flowers are inconspicuous and only appear earlier in the year at this time in late summer it still attracts its fair share of visitors. Wasps and overflies seem to like it, searching for something that I can’t see. But the past two weeks I’ve noticed another visitor I’ve only seen occasionally, and then not in the garden. This is a solitary wasp and despite it’s diminutive size, only about 10mm, it ia a beauty. Being small and pretty active it was a challenge to get a decent photo, but I eventually managed to get a couple I’m happy with.
Now I’m going to disappoint you here and tell you straight away that I can’t give you an exact name other than it is a Ruby-Tailed Wasp, a member of the Chrysis genus. Why am I being difficult? The reason is easy, and one I come up against often when trying to identify mini beasts. There are over 15 species within the genus and they all look very similar. So much of a look alike are they that 3 things are needed: an expert, a microscope and dissection skills. I am not an expert, I don’t have a microscope, nor do I have the inclination to spend time to dissect tiny insects. That said, it might be Chrysis Ignita, but........
Ruby-tailed Wasps are solitary and are parasitic on other wasps and solitary bees. The eggs are laid in the feels of the hosts, hatching out to devour the host larva and emerge the next year to start the cycle over again. Entering a wasps nest to lay it’s egg can be a dangerous activity, and in order to protect itself from the wasp stinging and killing it, Ruby-tailed Wasps have evolved a highly slecrotized exoskeleton making in impenetrable to the host wasp. It also has another defensive action when discovered creeping around the host’s nest by rolling into a ball, making it even more difficult to attack.
Between April and September you can find Ruby-Tailed Wasps running over walls, banks and tree trunks searching for the host nests. The wasps have two basic strategies in parasitizing hosts. The first involves cleptoparasitism where the newly emerged larva of the Ruby-tailed Wasp eats the host egg or the young host larva and then eats the food resources left by the host in the nest. The second strategy first eats the food store and then feeds on the host larva. The shining apparatus has evolved into a multi tool that allows the Ruby-tailed wasp to saw or penetrate through the cell wall of the host wasp, then the ovipositor is used to lay the egg into the host large a=or near it, depending upon the parasitic strategy used. It’s a jungle out there!
Before owning a moth light trap I had not really considered caddis flies as being a frequent visitor to the garden. But over the last few months I found a number skulking among the egg boxes as I empty the light trap in the mornings. Now I struggle enough trying to identify the moths that I catch and release, but caddis flies are even more of a challenge, as they do not seem to attract the attention of the publishing world resulting in a dearth of accessible field guides. There are over 6000 species that have been described worldwide. Of which 199 have been recorded in Britain, but only 3 in Ireland (1). I think that this chap who I found in the light trap a couple of weekends ago is Halesus radiatus, but I'm open to corrections. Caddis Flies are superficially like a moth, and are a distant relative in the evolutionary sense, but instead of scales on the wings, Caddisflies have a fine coating of hairs. It is this coating of hairs that gives this group of invertebrates it's nam...
The light trap came up with a number of new discoveries the other weekend. One of which stumped me for a while. I was convinced it was a micro moth, but the legs were very hairy and didn't quite fit. Neither did the wings. Well thanks to iSpot I was put straight. It's not a moth, but a Caddisfly. I'm not very good at this! But that said this chap, Limnephilus lunatus is quite attractive, also known as the Cinnamon Sedge. The 'lumatus' comes from the crescent shape on the edge of the wings. It is a well known species, especially among anglers. The larva doesn't use sand or other hard materials for building its case, it uses plant materials only. Most of the information I could find on L lunatus came from angling websites. Caddis flies belong to the Trichoptera, and have been known to fishermen since the advent of fly-fishing and to the entomological for a longer time. Mouffet the author of the first English book on entomology (the 'Theatrum Insectorum') w...
I was called into the daughter's bedroom last night to rescue a Beautiful plume moth. Though I'm still not sure who I was rescuing from whom! I've always been fascinated by these moths, which when at rest furl up their wings like sails on a ship. It was a fast flying and unpredicatable beast, and difficult to photograph clearly. The Beautiful plume moth, Amblyptilia acanthadactyla , is one of the commonest plume moths, usually recognisable by the warm rusty brown patches in the dark brown wing tip . I have to admit to have a little difficulty in identifying this for certain. A. acanthadactyla looks very similar to A. punctidactyla, the Brindled plume moth. However, with the help of the expert on iSpot it has been confirmed as A. acanthadactyla. It has two generations each year in July and later in September-April (1). The second generation over winters as an adult. Larval food plants have been listed as hedge woundwort, restharrows, mints, gooseberries, ...
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