Now....for something Completely different...!! Beewolf Wasp with Honey bee prey.

            On a recent visit to Thursley Common,where last year Kathy and I had found a small colony of Small Copper butterflies( sadly ,not this year,a much diminishing species) and after a fruitless search of the Parish field where they were nectaring on Ragwort last year,all we found were a few Meadow Browns and one tired looking Painted Lady.We decided to have a look for,and try and capture some shots of Black Darter dragonflies,fairly common there.On the way back to the ponds I'd noticed these wasps,brightly coloured,similar but not the same as the common wasps you get in your garden.I'd seen them before on the common,but was always sidetracked by something else to photograph.
But,this time I thought I'd see and learn what actions and habits they were involved in.They seemed to congregate in small colonies,each female occupying a dug burrow,the entrance of which they defended by charging out and driving away any other Beewolf wasps trying to make use of a ready dug nest site, using their substantially armoured face as a battering ram.In the burrow,they have their nest,where they raise there larval young.
Whilst I was fascinated by this activity,a wasp arrived,obviously carrying something,which I assumed was was some prey item.This turned out to be an unfortunate Honey Bee,of which there are many collecting pollen on the blossoming Heather.The Wasp was landing intermittently,I guess,positioning itself to take the prey into its burrow as food for its larval young.
I managed a few close ups of this amazing insects,one of which I've posted here.
When I got home I gleaned the info above from one of my many books on insects and stuff.
What an amazing creature,we're so lucky to have access to all this nature on our doorstep.
P.S..if you look closely,you can see how the wasp carries its prey using its middle legs hooked in behind the wings of the bee.

Please view large...there's a lot of detail there,thanks 
   

Taken on: August 5, 2017

Tags:

Beewolf-wasp

philanthus-gibbosus

insect

carnivore

hunter

honey-bee

prey-item

macro

close-up

thursley-common

sandy-track

burrowing-insect

colony-based

superb-insect

fascinting

yellow

black

olympus

em5mk2

60mm-macro

1/30thsec

f6.3

200iso

hand-held

lying-down...

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