Potter Wasps on the Canadian Fleabane

The other day I got out of the car and noticed that there was half a dozen potter wasps going crazy for the Canadian Fleabane Conyza canadensis (Fr. la Vergerette du Canada) in the front courtyard. It doesn't have very eyecatching flowers and it can definitely be called a weed here, but it must be packed with nectar that these distinctive wasps were feasting on.

Potter wasps Eumenes sp (Fr. les guêpes potières) are notoriously difficult to identify to species level, but luckily the Spanish social wasp specialist Leopoldo Castro was able to look at my photos in Facebook and offer his opinion. He says my photos are almost certainly of E. coronatus. We think there was a second species present too, because some of my photos show an individual with an almost entirely yellow posterior half of the abdomen. The photos were all taken with my phone, so most of them are quite blurry.

Potter wasps make charming little mud vases attached to twigs on bushes, which they lay an egg in and stock with a paralysed caterpillar which will become food for the larva once it hatches.

Hornet Blockade

We have a colony of feral honey bees living in the void between our attic floor and bedroom ceiling. They installed themselves back in April and really have been no trouble at all apart from me having to call Bernard the Beek to see if he could entice them into a 'proper' hive, and if not, ask his advice about how to manage them. The answer to the latter question is simple: there is no need to do anything at all.

The other day I noticed that there was a large number of bees huddled around the entrance to their hive, and hanging in the air in a thoroughly menacing way was a group of Asian Yellow-legged Hornets Vespa velutina (Fr. Frelon asiatique). These are notorious for raiding honey bee hives and beekeepers get very agitated about them.

Watching the action (or, to be honest, the lack of action) it seemed to me that the problem for the bees was not so much getting captured and eaten, but being trapped so they couldn't fly out and forage. It was a very hot day, and they could not fly off to find water for a drink either, and neither could they effectively fan the interior of the hive to keep it cool. The hornets dared not approach too closely as they would have got overwhelmed by guard bees who would envelope them in a mass of hot honey bees, thus killing the hornet. So it was a standoff, with the hornets presumably hoping that if they waited long enough the honey bees would fly in desperation. 

I don't know how long the situation endured. After lunch I looked again, and there were only a few guard bees at the hive entrance, and no hornets in sight. The next day I did see a hornet bearing off a honey bee.

The hornets will be wanting to catch bees to feed their own larvae. Hornet and wasp larvae are 'carnivores' and will eat the soft parts of other insects, which the adults either catch or scavenge for their young. It could also include bits of dead animals, ham and such from your picnic, and fish from the fishmongers at the market. The adult hornets and wasps themselves feed on sugary substances such as nectar that they forage from flowers, and soft drinks and jam at your picnic.

At the back door, the Asian Hornets are staking out the German wasps too, but here they are themselves having to fight off European Hornets Vespa crabro (Fr. Frelon), who also fancy a waspy snack.

European Hornet dismembering a European Wasp Vespula germanica on our door mat. The hornet has stung the wasp in the head and has already removed the abdomen.

Jersey Grasshopper

 

This Jersey Grasshopper Euchorthippus declivus (Fr. Criquet du brome) joined me at the swimming pool the other day and posed obligingly on my towel. Thanks to Luxembourg based entomologist Raoul Gerend for identifying the species for me. I knew it was a grasshopper, but beyond that I was baffled. That's partly because it isn't in my go to general insect guide (Michael Chinery's Insects of Britain and Western Europe) and partly because it turns out to be a long-winged variant. These are apparently not uncommon, but not the norm, so most pictures online show a grasshopper with wings that are shorter than the abdomen.

This is a species of tall dry calcareous grassland. Raoul says that the white stripe was the indicator for him to be able to suggest an identification.

The adults are at their peak in August, and can be found throughout France. This one, with its long wings and white submarginal strip on the elytrae, is female. The colour can vary between individuals, from brown and grey to yellowish and greenish.

Not a Drinker

The other day I found what I first thought was a Drinker in the bank. That's a type of moth, not an alcoholic. It turns out it wasn't a drinker, but a Plum Lappet Moth, Odonestis pruni.

This is the Plum Lappet in the bank.

I photographed it then helped it outside.

The wing colour ranges between yellow and orange, with reddish and brownish markings. On each forewing, there is a distinct white dot in the centre, near which lie two darker bands. It's considered a bit of a pest, due to the larvae's consumption of various crops. In french it's known as La Feuille-morte du prunier.

Whereas....

The Drinker Euthrix potatoria (Fr. la Buveuse) is a nocturnal moth in the fabulously teddy bearish and furry Eggar moth family Lasiocampidae.

This male Drinker is from my archive, photographed in Essex in 2002, in our garden.

The curious name, the same in French and English, comes from the caterpillar's reputation for sipping the morning dew off leaves.

 

Male Drinker on Simon's hand, from my archive.

The species is present in the whole of Europe and as far as Japan. In France it can be seen everywhere except some of the Mediterranean habitats. The adults are in flight from June to August. Eggs are laid on the host grass species and the caterpillars emerge, grow a bit, then overwinter. They finish their growth in the spring then spin a yellow coccoon attached to a grass stalk.

 From the archives.

They like damp grassland and forests, heaths, woodland clearings and roadsides. The caterpillars eat sedges Carex sp and grasses such as Cock's-foot Dactyla glomerata, Couch grass Elymus repens and Barren Brome Bromus sterilus.

You can see why I was confused.

Four-spotted Antlion

Twice this summer we have had pleasure of a visit by an uncommon and striking insect called a Four-spotted Antlion Distoleon tetragrammicus (Fr. Fourmilion longicorne). The adults look a bit like damselflies, but are much more sedentary. The juveniles are tiny ferocious predators that look like bits of bark with oversized jaws.

Antlions belong to the insect order Neuroptera, which includes lacewings and owlflies. The Antlions make up the family Myrmeleontidae.

Four-spotted antlions are present in southern Europe up to about Paris in the north, and in North Africa. 

They can be found during the day in open oak or pine woodland on dry calcareous hillsides, as well as nearby fallow land.

 The adults appear from June to August. The larvae, unlike other antlion species, do not dig funnel traps, but live in the dry leaf litter.

Aussie Moth

In contrast to yesterday's moth, photographed in our salon, this is an Australian Hawk Moth.

Hippotion scrofa is about twice the size of yesterday's moth, a fairly hefty beast with a 70mm wingpspan. It's found in Australia, New Caledonia and Vanuatu. Susan photographed this one in the Australian Alps last year.

I identified it using ChatGPT. If you use the right prompts, it's quite a useful tool.