Butterfly only readers, look away now. Out this afternoon, I saw an enormous Hornet flying over some brambles. It suddenly pounced on an unfortunate Honey Bee, stung it to death and proceeded to consume it in double quick time. I barely had time for a shot. It was hanging onto the bramble by one leg during its meal. Opportunist hunter, I guess.
Fabulous pic! I took something similar last year, but of a wasp eating a fly. It too was just hanging on by the toes (or whatever they are) of one foot (or whatever you call it ).
Hi all,
And here's a nasty wasp being horrid to a Speckled Wood at Fermyn this summer. Saw a hornet take a wasp 'on the wing' in Arundel last year, and eat the whole thing in less than 5 minutes
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These Vespa species can be very efficient killers. I've rarely ever seen a Hornet in the wild but I've seen the remarkable remains of their nest in a huge Black Poplar which had snapped off near the ground during a period of very strong winds. The tree would normally withstand such high winds but not when almost the whole of the heartwood about a metre above the ground had been turned into a huge number of their large cells, thereby weakening the strongest part of the tree.
About thirty years ago, when I bred large numbers of Purple Emperor (Apatura iris) larvae in large outdoor breeding cages enclosed in 1/2" mesh chicken wire to exclude birds, I became concerned as a few larvae started to go missing. Those losses increased daily and I had not experienced any losses when breeding numbers in previous years. I noticed the anal claspers only remains of one larva on one of the leaves these larvae use to rest on when not feeding. The rest of the larva was missing.
This was a warm autumn when wasps were about in numbers. I lost a number of 3rd instar iris larvae from their distinctive resting leaves on the growing bushes. Although I had my suspicions did not put two and two together then because of past experiences without losses until I saw a wasp enter the cages through the chicken mesh, alight on a seat leaf and remove the 3rd instar larva within a second or two then fly off with it... a very speedy process ... remarkable.
That warm autumn, I had two or three larvae feed on beyond the usual 3rd instar they hibernate in and become much larger. In previous years, a few second brood examples were produced. Maybe a very small percentage of any large brood are programmed to feed on as part of natural variation. Anyway, one larva became quite large this warm autumn and was over 2/3rds fully grown although unforced second brood insects if they are able to emerge, are usually about 2/3rds normal avaerage size. During my twice daily check of the cages, I checked this larger individual and as I did so, a worker wasp, much smaller than the larva, alighted on it, very quickly used its jaws to nibble around the larva's neck just behind its head so that the head fell off. The wasp then bit and severed the anal claspers in the same way. Then straddling the headless larva flew to the cage mesh, dragged the larva through the mesh, then flew away with it. The wasp worked very fast and the whole sequence lasted less than fifteen seconds.
We all learn by our mistakes and I enclosed the wire mesh cages with black nylon netting coverings which stopped the wasps' predations.
This fine morning, just as the morning sunshine was getting warm, I was awakened at 6.40 by a very loud buzzing in my bedroom. Queen wasps often enter the house late summer and autumn but, they never make such a loud angry buzzing. Was it a Hornet ?~ Rarely seen in these parts but last year my wife found a dead worker Hornet in the greenhouse ~ dead from heat exhaustion ~ when my wife mentioned this I suspected what she had seen there was a big queen wasp. However, I was wrong about that ~ it was indeed a Hornet. However, I was disappointed to find the 'owner' of that loud buzzing this morning was a large Bumble Bee. I caught it in a jam jar and released it through the open window.
Over the years experience taught me which creatures to exclude from my greenhouses and breeding cages. Such as that harmless looking 'House Fly' wandering about my greenhouse. Harmless until I saw one lay a disproportionately large single banana shaped ovum on one of my Apatura ilia larvae. Using a x10 hand lens, checking some other ilia larvae revealed more banana shaped ova on them.... I was able to remove each ovum from the larvae using some fine precision forceps ~ the adhesive these flies ( since identified as Tachinid species ) use to affix their ova is very strong and you have to do it carefully. That season several ilia pupae failed to produce ilia imagines ... but they did produce some healthy looking Tachinids... These Tachinid flies are everywhere. Prior to that experience, I never noticed them.
...
Cotswold Cockney is the name
All aspects of Natural History is my game.
Hi CC,
Fascinating account. I was certainly unaware that wasps might potentially play such a large part in PE larval predation. As you say, they can be very efficient killers! I watched a wasp kill one of the (in)famous Black-veined Whites at Stockbridge Down last year, while she was laying eggs. Under 'normal' conditions it probably wouldn't have given the butterfly a second glance, but it seemed to sense the insect's vulnerability and hit it like a sledgehammer. Within minutes only the severed wings were left.
Neil
I've watched hornets taking Orb Web spiders; they fly into the web as though they are potential lunch for the spider, which then rushes over. After a few secs of mayhem, the hornet starts taking the legs off the spider one by one, grasps the body in its mouth, and then revs up until it breaks free of the web.
A very smart way to catch a spider that is as large as the hornet!
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