wasps
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O, Wasp, Where Is Your Sting?
I spend a fair amount of time around wasps and bees. Sometimes they get in my face, but in all these years I’ve only been stung three times: 1) on the hand by a Honey Bee in a Lower East Side community garden because we were coming for her honey; 2) on the ear lobe…
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Wasp Nests, Part I
“Aerial Yellowjacket” is a bit unfortunate for a term, because the most common Dolichovespula wasp we have here is the Bald-faced Hornet (Dolichovespula maculate), which is black and white:
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Some Wasps
Have you noticed all the parts of a wasp’s mouth? That’s the tongue in the center there, reaching into the nectar, but that’s not the half of it. This is Ammophila pictipennis, I think, one of the thread-waisted wasps. Here’s a European Hornet, hanging from at least one foot, devouring a Western Honey Bee. These…
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Even More Galls!
Andricus incertus on swamp white oak (Q. bicolor) acorn. (All the below are on various swamp white oaks as well.) A cluster of Oak Rough Bulletgall Wasp galls (Disholcaspis quercusmamma). Note the ants and bee. Bald-faced Hornet and Asian Lady Beetle, too. In fact, I found several with lady beetles on them. Are the galls…
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More Galls
This is Andricus capillatus, a Cynipidae gall wasp like all these specimens today, on a white oak. Round Bullet Gall (Disholcaspis quercusglobulus), on the same white oak. This magnificent specimen of a tree is on a slope, with one branch sweeping down below eye-level, which is essential when searching for these things. Here’s another Round…
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Twofers and More
European Paperwasp and Two-spotted Scoliid Wasp. Clouded Sulphur (or is there some orange in there?) and something something skipper. Another skipper, in the background, along with an Common Eastern Bumblebee and a striped sweat bee. Monarch and more Common Eastern BBs. Two species of metallic sweat bees. Monarch and skipper. From the top clockwise: European…
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Blue-winged Ones
Zethus spinipes, I think. One of the potter and mason wasps. Note all the parts of the mouth, like little tendrils. Isodontia philadelphica, a grass-carving wasps, also sans a common name. Female and, with the face dot, male Four-toothed Mason Wasps (Monobia quadridens). Nearctic Blue Mud-dauber (Chalybion californicum), presumably. Very similar looking to the Steel-blue…
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Vine Wasps Continued
Eumenes potter wasp. Remarkably, even with this striking pattern, can’t get this one down to species. And that’s a wasp curator on iNaturalist talking. Leucospis affinis, a parasite of mason bees. Note that she carries her ovipositor flipped up and across her back. I’ve never seen this before. This is an impressive appendage, which can…
Backyard and Beyond 