The Mummy..... aaargh!

Some of the tiny wasps parasitise aphids, laying a single egg into their living hosts.  The young wasps develop inside the aphid, where they pupate, then eventually emerge.  This is a bit of mousear, with a live aphid (the little, green one on the stem) and an aphid mummy (the bloated brown one, on the leaf).  You can see the 'trapdoor' at the back of the aphid mummy, where the young wasp has cut its way out.

 The wasps responsible really are tiny, so we're unlikely to spot them, unless we're taking five minutes out to peruse the goings-on in some shrubbery or similar (it does happen!).

Cheshire Cat in Reading Garden

We spotted this cat grinning at us, sitting in the midst of a climbing plant on top of a pergola in a garden in Reading.

It must have watched us the whole time we were sampling in the garden and we only spotted it on our way out. What a great look-out!

Host and Parasite: the Cuckoo Bee and the Hairy-Footed Flower Bee

We just collected an intriguing pair of bees in a well-tended back garden in Reading: the cleptoparasitic (thieving) Melecta albifrons (Cuckoo Bee) and its host Anthophora plumipes (the Hairy-Footed Flower Bee). The female Cuckoo bee will lay her egg in a Flower Bee burrow, next to the pollen gathered by the Flower bee. Then her larva will hatch and consume the food that was intended for the Flower Bee’s own offspring. The bees were collected in quick succession on a Lunaria annua and a Symphytum officinalis flower. They’re most common in the South-East of England, so keep a look out for the species if you have a Flower Bee colony in your garden!

On the left side you see the Flower Bee with collected pollen at its legs, on the right is the Cuckoo Bee.

Charismatic MICRO-fauna

It has long been remarked that conservation funds and attention are focused largely on the charismatic fluffy and feathery mega-fauna.  Well, we won’t argue with prevailing opinion, but we do think it’s worth addressing the size issue.  Can small invertebrates get honorary membership in the category? We think this tiny bumble bee should! 

We encountered this little fluff-ball in an allotment in Reading and it is now part of the growing collection of specimens we have from urban areas across the town. So far, we’ve not encountered any other insects that compete with this little fellow in the cute-stakes. Could there be any potential contenders from other Project cities? Watch this space...

Science Picnic at Bristol Botanical Gardens

On the 12^th of June we – the Bristol team – participated in a science picnic hosted by the wonderful Bristol University Botanic Gardens. It was a chance for members of the public to come and hear about the work that we do as well as ask us questions. 

Kath, who manages the team,  talked about all three stages of the Urban Pollinators’ project; the work done last year in farmer’s fields, nature reserves and urban areas, the concentration on urban areas in the second year as well as the plans to plant flower meadows in urban areas next year. She also went into detail about the fieldwork her minions are doing across four cities in Britain. Lynne and Clare were on hand to demonstrate our sampling technique, enlightening the crowd whilst pretending to catch nonexistent pollinators. 

We even took along a colony of Bombus terrestris which attracted a lot of interest and detailed questions. We all enjoyed meeting the public to discuss pollinators, and even enjoyed the challenging questions they asked us. Overall it was a very successful evening!

Edinburgh eco-schools fair

On Wednesday, as the Olympic torch was making its way along Princes Street, Pierre and Deppie were representing the Urban Pollinators Project at the Edinburgh Eco-schools fair. Their outstanding stall featured a pinned insect display, a pollinators identification game – with sweets to be won – and a hive of live bumblebees! 

Fieldwork can be slow...

We were visiting the lovely and spacious gardens of Coombe Dingle earlier this week. In one large garden, amongst the bountiful vegetables, we found a piece of corrugated iron – a perfect place for snakes hiding from the heat. But lo! As well as a grass snake (too quick for my trigger finger, alas!) we found a very contented slow worm. We left it to its business and continued with our sampling, which happened to be very fruitful. Or should that be vegetable-ful?