Friday, July 24, 2015

Common Wasp Life cycle

I continue to marvel at the intricacies of insect life. We had to have a wasp's nest destroyed as it was in a totally inconvenient place - right next to the lawnmower in a rolled carpet in our shed. Normally I am happy to live alongside wasps as they help control garden pests. Part of the nest remained when we dragged out the carpet and the wasps here had survived and were busy with their daily routine of bringing up the young. The eggs are laid in the paper cells and when hatched fed by the workers on caterpillars etc . They also keep the cells clean and move the grubs around etc. When they are mature the grubs spin silk cocoons and then pupate and transform into the adult wasp, biting their way out. Some of the workers act as guards - in the last two images, a guard wasp sensed my presence and came forward with wings vibrating. I did get one sting in the process of photographing but generally they were unperturbed by a camera lens and ring flash a few centimetres from them.

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Ann Miles Photography - My Favourite Images of the Past10 years or so