The Return of the Insects: Ants and Wasps in Suffolk

 

I have been in the CEV Covid-19 category and in receipt of government letters so have hardly left the house for a year. However, I am now fully vaccinated and able to enjoy a little more of the world beyond my window. We took a trip to Sutton Hoo today to see the bluebells (ah, bluebells! how I missed them last year), and while we were there, encountered this tiny ant laboriously moving a large white bundle from one place to another over the scrubby heathland floor. The bundle looks a bit cocoon-like. We have posted David's photo (the top one) on iSpot, but do leave a comment if you know what is going on. 

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The photos below were taken just up the road from Sutton Hoo at Sutton Heath. I am guessing the black insect with red abdominal stripes is a sand-wasp of some variety. I will add an ID if I can find one!

P.S. Update on the two Sutton Heath photos immediately above. 

Thanks to one of the kind people on iSpot I now know that this is a Black Banded Spider Wasp (Anoplius (Arachnophroctonus) viaticus). There is more information here. I love it when I see (what is to me) a new species; the sandy heathland here in Suffolk produces unusual surprises like this from time to time. 

Grayling and other Insects on Sutton Heath (near Sutton Hoo)

Grayling, Sutton Heath, this afternoon

We have been exploring what for us is a new corner of Suffolk this weekend. We know the Sutton Hoo site pretty well, but had never discovered the lie of the land at nearby Sutton Heath ... until yesterday. We liked what we found so much that we returned this afternoon and were treated to a remarkable aerial display by Grayling butterflies. 

The Grayling is not a butterfly we see very often at all; and in this year of C-19, I had begun to think that, along with other wild things such as bluebells, tadpoles and demoiselles, it was going to be just one more species that would have to wait for a future year. How wrong I was. But I had almost forgotten just how camouflaged these Graylings can be when they are not on the wing against a blue sky.

When you visit a new place, I always find it helpful when there is a ready made guide. This information board may have been a bit faded, but it told us about Nightjars, Adders and about the different kinds of heather that one might encounter on this site in the Suffolk Sandlings.

We followed the marked-out trail and were soon heading into the forest, where we saw conifers, rowan, oak trees, chestnut, silver birch and holly.

After a short time we found ourselves in dappled sunlight, and began to wonder if the forest was about to give way.

Having seen an Elephant Hawk-moth caterpillar near our home on Friday, we checked the Rosebay Willowherb carefully, but failed to see this distinctive larva on the heath.

We came across a Buddleia, presumably a self-seeded one, in a clearing with benches, and there beside it was this Red Admiral.

This grasshopper was spotted in the same place, hopping about on these dead oak leaves.

The butterfly in the photo below is a Small Heath, a species we see not infrequently in this part of the world. It is very small.

I mentioned above that Rowan was one of the species of tree we noticed.

The view below gives an impression of this mixed habitat, with heather giving way to bracken, which in turn gives way to more heather and bracken before you reach a stand of silver birch. There is also a large conifer, and what looks like an oak in the foreground.

These may not be the Scottish moors, but we can't really complain, can we?

We were keeping a sharp eye out for more Grayling butterflies when we noticed this sand wasp, possibly the Red-banded Sand Wasp. We see these from time to time, but had not seen one for ages.

I'm not quite sure what it was doing on this bit of dead vegetation...

I particularly like the way in which the Grayling in the photo below barely shows up beside the pine cone. In a recent post I featured the Spider Wasp, with its unmissable yellow stripes. How strange that that particular insect should protect itself by mimicking a very visible wasp while this butterfly should use camouflage. 

Look for the legs in the photo below...

The undergrowth here on the sandy heath is made up of dead bracken, old acorns, bits of bark and old stalks.

In total contrast, this tiny caterpillar could hardly be missed! Is it a species of (?pine) sawfly?

We noticed two snails (or shells) in close proximity to one another.

It was a joy to watch the butterflies in a little glade. We had not seen Small Coppers (below) for some weeks.

This is certainly a place we are glad to have found. And it feels good to add the Grayling to my list of butterflies seen in this strange year. 

#30DaysWild Day 26: Colourful Wasps

With the exception of the top right image, these photographs were all taken in Suffolk

Before we moved to Suffolk eight or so years ago a wasp to me was pretty much a wasp, an insect to be avoided at all costs if at all possible. I still fight shy of what is sometimes referred to as the Common Wasp, having ended up in A&E the last time I was stung.

However, I have discovered that a wasp is not a wasp is not a wasp. These insects come in many shapes, sizes and colours; and in terms of showiness, my favourite is undoubtedly the Ruby-tailed wasp which we sometimes see in our garden. It has cuckoo wasp traits, but I love the brightness of its iridescence, which is seen as shiny reds, greens and blues.

I decided to make a collage of some of my more colourful or unusual wasp photos for Day 26 of #30DaysWild. I wonder what picture comes to mind when you hear the 'wasp' word...

A wonderful site to visit... here.

Sand Wasps, Digger Wasps, the Ant-lion and the Bee-wolf

Suffolk boasts a number of sandy heathland and sand dune habitats. The photos below were taken at NT Sutton Hoo, above the river Deben near Woodbridge and at RSPB Minsmere on the Suffolk coast. The mounds at Sutton Hoo rise prominently above the skyline, but there are also a number of tiny mounds in the area that you could easily miss. These belong to a variety of burrowing insects including digger wasps.

The sandy soil around Minsmere and the adjoining heath above Dunwich is home to the Ant-lion and the Bee-wolf. Adult Ant-lions are not exactly spectacular: they look a bit like dull grey damselflies and are not often seen during the best hours of daylight, preferring the evening for their excursions on the wing. The larvae are the ones responsible for the name since they have soft bodies covered in bristles: they also have huge appetites for ants. They live in sandy pits, which they create and in which they sometimes play host to parasitic insects.

The Bee-wolf, on the other hand, is actually a solitary digger wasp. This insect preys on the worker Honey bee, but since the Bee-wolf needs a very particular habitat, I wonder how much of a threat it poses to the Honey bee population. It looks like a large wasp, but with rather short thick antennae.

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My first photo (immediately below) was taken at Sutton Hoo in sandy soil. I do not have an exact ID for the insect to date, but I am pretty certain that it is a species of Digger Wasp ...

... for here it is doing what Digger Wasps do best.

The photo below shows ... a head in a hole. No prizes for guessing that!

The next photo was taken on the reserve at RSPB Minsmere along the sandy edge of the path that leads towards the sea from the Visitors' Centre.

Here we are back at NT Sutton Hoo again, where the brown insect - a weevil perhaps, possibly a larva of some sort - is climbing up the sandy wall of a large Digger Wasp/Sand Wasp hole. I am wondering if there is another insect slightly above it to the right in the hole within the hole. There was a lot of insect activity in the area.

 The following picture is of the same hole, and shows a wasp peering out of a crevice.

 

The hole below was about a couple of metres away from the large one above. This time you can see a different kind of insect, looking more like an ant; and yet it is in fact a solitary Red-banded Sand Wasp of the Ammophila family.

... and here it is ...

... digging away.

The photos that I took at Sutton Hoo were taken during a walk around the mounds. The photo below shows just how brown the long grass has become, despite the heavy rains in June. I find it sad to think that we are already about a month on from the longest day.

And finally, here is a photo of three friends who were quite happy to stand in our path until their pictures had been taken!