An id for a photograph taken 2 years ago! I showed a Wasp's nest that had been extracted by (probably) Badgers. I've always wondered which wasp species made the nest. It turns out the Common Wasp collects fibres of rotten wood, which means that the nest is a beige colour overall, whereas V. germanica takes sound dead wood, and makes nests that are greyish in colour. So my nest was a Common Wasp's nest. I like tidying up loose ends.
Identification for Eupodes corollae on 9th July now confirmed.
Sunny and hot.
A shot of Eristalis intricarius - an excellent Bumble-Bee mimic.
I only find this in one location on the patch, and that's confined to about 20m of a ditch. I can't see anything unique about this bit of ditch, but I've never seen it anywhere else.
The Ichneumons are now starting in force. Angelica has opened, so I'll be photographing these in numbers over the next two weeks.
Ringlets are very numerous this year. I counted over a hundred in about 10 minutes.
I just had to include the shadow.
A female Syrphus ribesii, giving a good view of the all-yellow rear leg. The gentle curve of wing vein R 4-5 is also shown clearly.
This male Syrphus has very red eyes. I've asked around, but no-one can advise me on why some ( a small percentage) have red eyes instead of the more usual maroon eyes (above).
