The hylotelephiums have been buzzing with bees this week. Loads of common carder bumble bees and white/buff tailed bumbles with a few honey bees too. But there's been this one lone red-tailed bumblebee. Just one in the whole garden. It looks too small to be a queen but isn't collecting pollen like a worker. I thought it might be a cuckoo bee like https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/red-tailed-bumblebees/red-tailed-cuckoo-bumblebee/ but the wings don't look dark enough for a female and the markings don't look right for a male. It's also too bald on top to be a fresh queen so it must be a red-tailed bumblebee worker in which case where are the rest of them? It's a mystery.
If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
Now heres an ID challenge! Not a hope in hell springs to mind. Quite a haul of creatures on the wildlife camera from last night (boar, deer, mongoose, fox, rat, possible polecat) but this ghostly moth image was my favourite:
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Can anyone identify this nest or indeed whether these are hornets of the Asian or European variety or indeed if a hornet at all? Just spotted on a rocky outcrop in the garden about a metre from the ground. Sorry for blurry, possibly useless photos of the ‘hornets’ I don’t have a decent enough camera to get close enough. The strange thing is, we have had Asian hornets in the past and ID’d them but checking again online there are so many variable descriptions of both types I’m now totally confused…
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
Hi folks, ignore my last post, plucked up the b*lls to creep closer. Yellow legs and all other markings do indicate Asian Hornet so extermination guy is coming tomorrow to deal with.
Mountainous Northern Catalunya, Spain. Hot summers, cold winters.
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