I hadn’t realised there were so many different types of wasp until I started taking photos of nature. Not just the variations of your classic yellow and black one, of those there are many. But the more unusual ones I hadn’t realised were part of the wasp family until I looked them up. I will start with the classic one though, and I have a few good shots of these so they may get their own post.
Paper Wasp – Spain
Yellow Jacket Queen Wasp – UK
I believe this a Queen wasp. I only noticed it at first in the garden because I could hear a scrapping sound on the fence and saw this large wasp chewing the wood off in small strips! Apparently this is what Queen wasps do to prepare the nest for eggs.
Ruby-tailed Wasp – Spain
This wonderfully coloured little beauty is a Ruby-tailed wasp, which is a type of cuckoo wasp. If you know what cuckoos are known for then you’ll know why they are named so. Laying eggs in another wasps nest is their thing.
Black and Yellow Mud Dauber Wasp – UK
Velvet Ant – Spain
You may think, why would you put an ant, which clearly looks like a spider, in with the wasps? Well, I was surprised to find out this is a wasp! The females are wingless and look like hairy ants as you can see. And to add to the strangeness of these little insects, when you disturb them they squeak.
Mammoth Wasp – Spain
We didn’t get to see many of these, but was nice to catch a couple of pictures here and there. They are quite big like carpenter bees and just as cool.
Red Paper Wasp – Spain
I think this is a red paper wasp, and as you can see I didn’t get a great picture and it was only one.
Cicada Killer Wasp? – Spain
Again, not the greatest picture, but only a small window as this guy did not linger. After much trawling through pictures and species, I think this is a Cicada killer wasp, but it does have lots of similarities to hornets and even some types of bee, so please feel free to correct me if I have got this one (or any of them) wrong.
The first few bees of the year have been passing through, as more of the garden starts to come to life, more are coming. The muscari has been helpful, and my decision to move the small gooseberry bush was a good move. It didn’t have any fruit last year despite having some the first year of purchase. So I figured it needed more sun, it’s doing well and already attracting bees! So maybe some gooseberries this year to go with loganberries if that plant also survives it’s relocation. So far so good.
Although I love Spring, this is the frustrating bit for me, where everything is moving along, but slowly. It will take another few weeks for more to happen. But it’s coming…
A pretty little butterfly that was extremely plentiful in Spain, hopefully I can entice more into my garden this year, but will have to see what grows to help with that. But this one was great to photograph as it didn’t even seem to notice me most of the time.
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