Wildlife early 2009

[Anthony Darby]

The dramatic little blue and orange wasp is Chrysis sp., possibly ignita, which parasitises solitary bees! I am going to make one of these hotels. I think it is fantastic.

[Maggi Young]

One of our little Blue Banded Bees investigating a Crocus pulchellus.  Cute little things. 

Anthony, is this photo of the blue banded "bee"  the parasitic wasp to which you refer?

[Paul T]

Maggi,

Our blue banded bees are definitely not parasitic wasps!!

I was going to ask how you stop the wasps using the bee hotel.  Here, I think that they'd use the holes, not solitary bees, but I guess we don't have as many solitary bees around here.  No ideas of the nesting habits of our blue banded bees though. 

[Maggi Young]

My apologies, Paul.... I meant no offence to your cute blue banded chums!
 Which critter is Anthony referringto then? I'm confused.....
 Is it this one,  from Armin's photo# 1014,  do we think???
 

[mark smyth]

Sand Martins Riparia riparia hard at work today

[Maggi Young]

Busy at their work, eh, Mark?
I do hope that this is a Bank which can and will be saved

[Armin]

Anthony,
thanks for identification. Parasitic wasps - that's very interesting.
I'll google tomorrow to learn more about...

[Lesley Cox]

We have several native bees, all solitary and they live/nest in the ground. I wonder if they would be tempted to holiday in a bee hotel? It looks something nice to have in the garden and sure to create interest from visitors.

[Anthony Darby]

Anthony,
thanks for identification. Parasitic wasps - that's very interesting.
I'll google tomorrow to learn more about...

No problem Armin. I suppose orange wasn't really the correct colour, especially as these are called 'ruby-tailed wasps'. They are quite common here in Dunblane, usually on the house wall.

[Maggi Young]

I've been on the trail.... I learn that these ruby-tailed chaps parasitise mostly solitary mason-wasps, as opposed to bees ....learn summat new everyday

[Paul T]

Maggi,

No need to apologise... I was just pointing out mine was a bee not a wasp.  The little blue and red jobbie you pointed was what he was referring to... definitely a wasp.

Here, the main parasitic wasps we see are the ones that hit Aphids.  I am BIG fans of those wasps, and have even opened up my shadehouse so that they can enter and clean up some on my Cyclamen in there.  Gotta love natural remedies for nasties!! 

[Anthony Darby]

Maggi,

No need to apologise... I was just pointing out mine was a bee not a wasp.  The little blue and red jobbie you pointed was what he was referring to... definitely a wasp.

Here, the main parasitic wasps we see are the ones that hit Aphids.  I am BIG fans of those wasps, and have even opened up my shadehouse so that they can enter and clean up some on my Cyclamen in there.  Gotta love natural remedies for nasties!! 

The, er, blue and red jobbies (is there a cure? ) are really quite small, ~1 cm or less. Chrysis ignita parasitises mason bees and C. fulgida parasitises digger and mason wasps. It is the former that is found in Scotland.

[Ragged Robin]

wildlife in the mountains and the valley today that I could hear long before I could place them! 

[Paul T]

Robin,

Cute frog!! 

Here's a few recent pics from my neck of the woods.....

A green "swallowtail" type butterfly (no idea what it actually is) taht has part of the left wing missing.  Not sure how much longer for this world that particular butterfly was.

A couple of pics of one of the Swamp Wallabies at the ANBG.  They rarely stick around long enough for a picture, usually darting off as soon as they see you.  It was fairly early morning in poor light and at a distance, so not great pics, but they show the difference to the Kangaroos I have posted before. 

Lastly, a tiny spider that at first glance I thought was a tick (but we don't get ticks up here usually), but it definitely produced web and could hang from it and "reel it in" as needed.  Very small, but rather interesting.

[Paul T]

These are not actually "wildlife", but rather the effects of wildlife.  They're a spiderweb the other morning after fog, with the sun shining through the dewdrops.  Some are refracting different colours.  This size pic doesn't really show them very well, but I can post slightly larger pics if anyone is actually interested.  In the full size pic from the camera you see much more of the prismatic effects of the dewdrops. 

I would love to have seen what my new camera would have done with these pics, as i think they would have been much clearer.  I was pretty pleased that my old camera actually focused on them and that they worked, because I thought they might just be fuzzy blobs.  They almost look like drops on a piece of glass in front of the viewer, but I can assure you they're on a spiderweb.  You can just see the strands connecting them.