I went blackberry picking in Warwick Gardens this morning. The bushes hang over the fence from one of the gardens and are laden with ripe, succulent fruit. I stewed some in red wine with star anise, cinnamon and a squirt of honey (yum!) and packed the rest away in the freezer for later.
Another creature stocking up her larder was Astata boops, a fine-looking shield bug-hunting wasp. She looked rather happy to have caught a Birch shield bug nymph and was running up and down the birch tree working out a way to carry it back to her nest. These wasps make their nests by burrowing into the ground and building cells. The tunnel can be 10cm long and usually contains two or three cells. Our wasp has her nest near one of the blackberry bushes as she flew off the tree and disappeared into a hole under the grass. The female fills each cell with a shield bug, lays her egg in it and seals up the cell. The entrance to the nest is also sealed and guarded by the male. The larvae feed on the shield bugs over winter and emerge as adult wasps in the spring.
I see a lot of interesting articles on your blog. You have to spend a lot of
time writing, i know how to save you a lot
of time, there is a tool that creates high quality, google friendly
posts in couple of seconds, just type in google – k2 unlimited content
I read a lot of interesting content here. Probably you spend a lot of time writing, i know how to save you
a lot of work, there is an online tool that creates high quality, google friendly articles in seconds, just type in google
– laranitas free content source
Pingback: Buggered off | i n s e c t i n s i d e
Hi admin, i must say you have very interesting articles
here. Your blog should go viral. You need initial traffic
boost only. How to get it? Search for; Mertiso’s tips go viral