A brief visit to the Common this afternoon saw me return to the area of former car park along the Worcester Rd that i had visited the day before. I had hoped to get more photos of Sand Wasps but was out of luck on that front. That said, I was treated to another of the site's speciality species in the form of a ♂ Beewolf.
The Beewolf is one of the largest solitary wasp species in Britain and nests in sandy places on dunes, heaths and sand-pits. It gets it's common name, Beewolf, from the fact that it stocks its nest burrows almost exclusively with Honeybees. Female Beewolfs are large imposing wasps that are easily recognised by the narrow reddish stripe behind the eye and extensively pale face. The males on the other hand are smaller with bluish eyes and a distinctive trident-like mark between the eyes.
♂ Beewolf (Philanthus triangulum)
Wednesday 5th July 2017:
It was yet another warm sunny day on the Common and for my visit I walked a circuit on the west side of the Worcester Rd. There was a good mix of butterfly species on the wing, with notables including: 1 Marbled White, 2 Small Heath, 1 Small Copper, 1 Red Admiral, 2 Comma and 2 Large White. Essex Skipper, Small Skipper, Meadow Brown and Ringlet were all present in good numbers. A small number of Gatekeeper had also emerged since my previous visit.
The highlight of the visit was finding a rather diminutive 24-spot Ladybird. This was the first I have seen this year. To give you an idea of scale I have attached a photo below showing the beetle on a plant stem next to my thumbnail.
24-spot Ladybird (Subcoccinella 24-punctata)
brilliant mate.
ReplyDeleteThanks Alan!
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