wasps
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Wasp Tunnels
Of course, the giant wasps are going to get your attention, but the fresh dirt is also a good sign.I’ve seen Cicada Killer Wasps dig into the bare, hard-packed dirt of tree pits, but I’m guessing a gentle, grassy slope is more favorable.Sphecius speciosus excavate long tunnels, which they then provision with paralyzed cicadas. (How…
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Sphex ichneumoneus
What a gorgeous wasp. Feeding on Monarda punctata, whose flowers are rather attractive, too. Great Golden Sand-digger. As the common name suggests, they nest in solitary holes in the ground. Adults feed on nectar. The female provisions her young in these sandy nest caves with paralyzed Orthoptera: crickets, katydids, grasshoppers.The back of the thorax is…
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This Used To Be Lawn
“Now it’s all covered in flowers.”And grasses. Good riddance! This hillside in Green-Wood, near the 5th Avenue entrance, has been converted into meadow. From turf, fertilizer- and chemical- warfare dependent turf, nasty turf, to this riot of life. Yes, it’s “messy,” gloriously so! It’s only a tiny portion of the cemetery, of course. Too many…
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Mud Castles
Wasp nests, provisioned with spiders and other delicacies for larvae to eat. Vintage ’17, awaiting the warmth of ’18. I had a Black & Yellow Mud-dauber Wasp under the balcony at my Cobble Hill apartment. The brand new adult wasps emerged in June.
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Pulp Nonfiction
All right, then, I will admit an obsession with these Bald-faced Hornet nests. The scraps of paper blown down from one that I bought home recently revealed at least two tiny invertebrate species making their home there after the wasps were undone by the year. At 10x magnification, you really begin to see the tiny…
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Snow Hat
Within a short distance of the 25th St. entrance to Green-Wood, there are five of these big Bald-faced Hornet nests.A pair in neighboring trees. And yesterday, I found some of the paper of one of them strewn about. Now that’s what I call wrapping paper!
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Revealed
Paper can be strong stuff, but it’s all relative. The exterior coating of wood-pulp paper made by Dolichovespula maculata hornets, who scrape dead trees (or fence posts!) with their mighty jaws, has been stripped off by the weather. Horizontal layers of comb are revealed within. And still-capped larvae probably all killed by the freeze. The…
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Memento Mori
Found in the shadowy gully between window and screen of someone else’s fourteenth story apartment, a veritable mausoleum of desiccated Diptera and at least one Hymenoptera. I’m just finishing up my costume for tonight: I’m going as a landfill full of Halloween garbage.
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So Many Monarchs
Have you noticed what a good year it is for Monarch Butterflies? There have been lots of positive reports from around the city and further afield about the large numbers of Danaus plexippus being seen. On Saturday, I walked from Sunset Park to Park Slope and back again to pick up some baked goods. I…
Backyard and Beyond 