At last spring really seems to have arrived, and I spent nearly an hour in the College Broadview gardens just along a 10 metre long section of path looking at the insects in the afternoon sunshine, as well as listening to the birdsong in the background.
The first insect I put up to ispot was a pretty white-tufted small bee that turned out to be Melecta albifrons, a kleptoparasite usually of Anthrophora plumipes the Flower Bee. Melecta females are generally black in contrast and are supposed to look for the Anthophora aggregations and dig down to the nests to lay their eggs on the surface of Anthrophora's cells.
when the Melecta egg hatches out (one day before the Anthrophora eggs?) the Melecta larva which has fierce mandibles attacks the Anthrophora eggs and any other Melecta eggs and larvae, and the one surviving larva feasts on the Anthrophora food store until the Melecta adults emerge the following spring to repeat the whole process.
The pictures below are of he single male insect seen, apparently sunning itself on the variegated holly leaves by the garden design studio.
Also found nectaring off the Muscari, grape hyacinth, by the path were one or several Bombylius major, the Common Bee-Fly, again checked for species just in case.
The first insect I put up to ispot was a pretty white-tufted small bee that turned out to be Melecta albifrons, a kleptoparasite usually of Anthrophora plumipes the Flower Bee. Melecta females are generally black in contrast and are supposed to look for the Anthophora aggregations and dig down to the nests to lay their eggs on the surface of Anthrophora's cells.
when the Melecta egg hatches out (one day before the Anthrophora eggs?) the Melecta larva which has fierce mandibles attacks the Anthrophora eggs and any other Melecta eggs and larvae, and the one surviving larva feasts on the Anthrophora food store until the Melecta adults emerge the following spring to repeat the whole process.
The pictures below are of he single male insect seen, apparently sunning itself on the variegated holly leaves by the garden design studio.
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