Strange Interactions in the Insect World

We spent the morning photographing  on a sandy hillside in Bedfordshire photographing the Beewolf Wasp, Philanthus triangulum, which preys on honey bees and various other insects. The Beewolf wasps sting their prey in a membranous location on the ventral surface and the venom quickly paralyzes major voluntary muscles, yet does not kill the prey. The Beewolf carries the prey back to a tunnel, which can be as much as 1 m long. Up to 34 lateral tunnels each ending in a brood chamber branch off from the main tunnel. Each brood chamber is stocked with one to six honeybees and the female lays an egg in each.

Minute red and green Cuckoo Wasps, either Hedychrum nobile or H.niemalai, which can only be separated by looking at a specimen, were flying around the tunnel mouths. It is reported that they use species of Cerceris wasp as hosts but we only observed Philanthus so will have to look more carefully at all the black and yellow wasps next time.

There were also Pantaloon Bees (a newly invented name apparently) Dasypoda hirtipes.They have the nickname from the large back-leg baskets which when full of pollen look like pantaloos. They are parasitised by the Miltogramma fly, which I also recorded.

Finally I photographed  the black and white Common Spiny Digger Wasp Oxybelus uniglumis, which carries its prey impaled  on the sting. This no doubt has a parasite of its own

So in the words originally of Jonathan Swift

"Great fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,

And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so ad infinitum.

Return to Gamlingay Woods

We met some friends from CCC for a morning walk in the woods hoping to see lots of Silver-washed Fritillaries. There were a few around but disappointing numbers. It was good to record the southern Hawker and White-legged Damselfly along with Large skipper, Peacock, Large White and Brimstone.

Afternoon In Gamlingay Woods

 In the afternoon on Thursday, we visited Gamlingay Woods - my first subject was a Hornet resting for a very short time before catching a hoverfly and off before the next frame. Silver Washed Fritillaries present but very active only occasionally resting to feed and not in the numbers of previous years. Other butterflies included the Large Skipper and a Specked Wood so worn you could see through the wings.

Lark Rise Farm Barton

We visited Lark Rise Farm, Cambridgeshire yesterday, a Countryside Restoration Trust Property, to hopefully photograph some of the specialities such as Small Copper and Small Heath. These were absent but did manage a selection of insects which give the feel of a warm dry meadow in summer (compared to our afternoon woodland venue (next blog entry). The Essex skipper has black underneath the antenna tips and the Small skipper has orange - otherwise very similar..

33 degrees Along the River Cam

It was 33o C in the shade on Tuesday when I walked into Cambridge along the Cam from Grantchester Meadows. Time for messing about in boats. 

Moonrise over Cambridgeshire

I had noted in my diary that the full moon was rising at 8.30 last night just as the sun was setting so went up the drift by our house to view the event. At first it was only a hazy globe on the horizon but as the sun set and the light levels dropped it became clearer.

Garden Party to Celebrate 250th Anniversary of Addenbrooke's Hospital

Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge  was founded in 1766 on Trumpington Street with £4,500 from the will of Dr John Addenbrooke, a fellow of St Catharine's College. To celebrate this anniversary, Mary, who has worked so hard for Addenbrookes in various roles, and Jeffery Archer invited ACT (Addenbrookes Charitable Trust) to hold an Evening Garden Party at the Old Vicarage, Grantchester. David Robinson, Chairman of ACT, compered the evening.It was wonderful to see the original documents from 1766 among with a book of notes by wounded soldiers from 1917.  There was music from around 1766 by a Baroque group, Keith Day ex-CEO of ACT seen here with the hospital Archivist,  gave an interesting speech about the history of Addenbrookes, and Mary Archer told us the history of the Old Vicarage with lots of amusing anecdotes. Earlier in the day the Archers had celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary with a large lunch party so the final event of the evening was an auction of the beautiful table decoration run by Jeffery with his usual persuasive style.