David Element
Wildlife
Photography and Digital Video Images
________________________________________________________________________________ Hymenoptera 11 – Ornate-tailed
Digger Wasps
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris
rybyensis
(f) with COMMON GREEN FURROW BEE Lasiommata
morio (f)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis (f) with COMMON GREEN FURROW BEE Lasiommata morio (f)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis (f) with COMMON GREEN FURROW BEE Lasiommata morio (f)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris
rybyensis (f) with COMMON GREEN FURROW BEE Lasiommata morio
(f)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis (f) with COMMON GREEN FURROW BEE Lasiommata morio (f)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis (m)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis (m)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis (m)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis (m)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis (m)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis (f)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis (f)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis (f)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis (f)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis (f)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris rybyensis (m)
ORNATE-TAILED DIGGER WASP Cerceris
rybyensis (m)
· The handsomely marked and variably sized Ornate-tailed Digger Wasp or Bee-fox Cerceris rybyensis may be numerous in midsummer. With the exception of the Bee-wolf Philanthus triangulum this is the only solitary wasp in Britain that collects bee prey in order to provision its larvae, although unlike P. triangulum (exclusively a predator of Honey Bees Apis mellifera) a range of solitary bee species is taken. The first four photographs in this series illustrate a female in the process of paralysing a female Common Furrow Bee Lasioglossum morio. Only the larger females appear to have spot patterns on their compound eyes. According to Nick Owens (pers. comm.), co-author of ‘Some observations of the behaviour of Cerceris rybyensis’, Owens & Gomez de la Cuesta, BWARS Newsletter Autumn 2021 (in press) this behaviour has only rarely been recorded on film.
· David’s short film of Ornate Digger Wasp behaviour may be seen here: https://youtu.be/7JAXfZmeDik.
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