insects

As the warmer weather arrived, I opened the window in front of my desk for the first time in ages.

Immediately I realised that I had uncovered the living larder of a very busy mother wasp.

In the narrow gap between sill and window base, she had created a mud maze in a neat butterfly shape.

In there she had laid her eggs, and sealed up stunned spiders ready for the first feed when the larvae hatch.

This will give the larvae the energy to turn into the pupae from which the adult will emerge.

But as these look like pupae, has she over-provisioned or will the adult eat them later?

Anyone know? I’d like to.

We’ve learnt all we know about camouflage from Nature. It would be impossible to beat the intricate deceptive details that have been
incorporated into the design of this large stick insect.

It was easy to spot on the back of the truck where for some reason it had landed. Not good camouflage for metal and grease. Once carefully relocated with a real stick to a young birch tree, silhouetted, it was easy to miss.

Closer inspection showed tiny bumps, as if a twig had snapped off there, and shades and patterns of bark-like colour.

It used to be lumped in with grasshoppers and crickets and cockroaches, but now has its own order, Phasmida.

Apparently these ‘Walking Sticks’ are now popular pets: interesting, quiet, vegetarians – but awfully fragile.

I could see its folded wings, but I’ve never seen one fly. Has anyone out there?