This poor individual has been stylopised twice poor thing, glove puppets sticking out between the segments of the abdomen. Stylops are parasites of the order Strepsiptera related to the beetles, only the head of the female sticks out. The males can fly using large hindwings and the females live internally like this sucking the life out of members of the hemiptera and hymenoptera. More here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strepsiptera
As if life wasn't bad enough here's Nomada fucata, a cleptoparasite or cuckoo bee of Andrena flavipes, laying eggs in the nest chamber of the Andrena and whose larvae eat the food.
All the Meloe, Oil Beetles, I saw were proscarabaceus judging by the back of the pronotum which is not channelled. Another group which lives at the expense of the bees:
On a happier note a few male Anthophora pilipes were seen but the females don't seem to be out. They like to nest more in the steeper banks of finer sediment rather than the stonier banks of raised beach.
Sunday at Pwll Du was this cute jumping spider, Heliophanus cupreus as far as I can tell although I'm not a spider officianado.
2 comments:
Those Stylops look very unpleasant! Some very sharp observations Mr Tew, but still addicted to invert-porn I see.
Fantastic stuff Ian. I especially like the Cuckoo bee.
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