Giving me the ich - Scambus elegans

On a nocturnal visit to Cullaloe this week I spotted what I thought was a spider dangling from a Willow branch. Slipping the rim of the net under it I scooped it - only to find a female ichneumonid wasp in the net. No spider, though there could have been one which has been saved from a sticky end.

Early investigations made me head for Pimplinae and - yippee! - I have a key. It has literally taken me all day on and off to unpack the vagaries of wasp key glossary madness (errr, I mean I was working from home). I ended up at Scambus elegans, and, unbelievably, this seems to be correct. There are 4 records on NBN. If it's univoltine and mature in February that's no wonder, though. What kind of idiot's looking for Ichneumons in February?

This happy idiot :)

Spot the yellow stigmata

Shiny posterior to tergites are typically pimpline

Subtle elegans-ness

Short numbers note: despite spending years looking at Cullaloe and a whole year hammering it for a 1K challenge only two years ago I've seen in the first 7 weeks of 2021: 14 new diptera, 4 new spiders, 23 new beetles, 8 new bugs and a new wasp. This has to be, in part, from ignoring everything that isn't an invertebrate. There must be some sort of lesson there.

Here's some old wasp

Tree Bumblebee new to Cullaloe

Not exactly the first bumblebee I was expecting, but there you are. First hoverfly too, though I failed to catch it. The wooden fence was covered in 7-spot ladybirds (well, 7 anyway)

Ichneumonid wasp refound - Chasmias motatorius

Found hybernating in bulrushes over the weekend, this species of wasp is one that was first recorded on the reserve ten years ago -the ichneumoid Chasmias motatorius

Bottle trapping

A quick bottle trapping session in the water found a couple of Water Boatmen, a few diving beetles as yet unidentified, a newt and a shed load of leeches. The newt I quickly released without photo, hopefully not too much the worse for wear. The water boatmen seem to have expired. Maybe they are quite delicate beasts despite their size. I have a couple of the diving beetles for determination and a couple of leeches out of ghoulish curiosity. I hoped they could be identified but this may take more capability than I have access to at the moment. Let's see.

I was amazed to find anything given the water looks like some kind of white ghastly chemical soup

Hydroporus palustris

The diving beetle turned out to be Hydroporus palustris, according to Nature of fife Coleoptera list the "commonest species of vegetated edges of lochs etc." Sounds fair enough

Bee update

Managed a few closer shots of bees yesterday. This time I also found on BWARS website (link) the useful tip "fresh workers often have a narrow band of brownish hairs at the base of the white ‘tail’" for B.terrestris. I'm not sure this is even a worker, but I am sure its tail has at least a narrow band of brownish hairs. This one has a lot of passengers! Looking at pics from last year of B.lucorum, it has a very clean tail (see hymenoptera gallery here)

post-script from iRecord

Pics - Insects - Hymenoptera

List of Cullaloe's Hymenoptera

Bombus hortorum. Small Garden Bumblebee

12/06/2014

Bombus lapidarius, Large Red-tailed Bumblebee

11/04/2014

Bombus lucorum, White-tailed Bumblebee

2013

05/07/2013

Bombus pascuorum, Carder Bee

26/09/2013

Bombus pastorum, Early Bumblebee

2013

Bombus terrestris, Buff-tailed Bumblebee