Tuesday 21 July 2015

Trosley again


Looking for the Ectemnius I still failed to get very good pictures, but they were improved on yesterday by getting closer! A quick sequence in which the wasp came close enough to be photographable, but I was a bit rushed and didn't do a very good job.

However one of the insects I saw today definitely had a golden-haired clypeus, as seen below. It was also possible to see the long hairs on the mesonotum, so it could have been Ectemnius cavifrons.



From Ardea:

The easiest to use is Yeo and Corbet Solitary Wasps, Naturalist Handbook 3, it's also fairly cheap - try Amazon or other. For female ID you need to get a clear view of the shape of the clypeus (basically upper lip) which you can only see well from the underside of the head, against the light. The clypeal hairs obscure the shape from the front. WIth your photos, long Mesonotal hairs, golden clypeal hairs = either lapidaries, ruficornis (scarce), cavifrons and sexcinctus.

The large black beetle laying eggs in the dead horsechestnut trunk might have been the Large Black Longhorn, Stictoleptura scutellata, I wait to have it confirmed or denied on iSpot.




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