Since the beginning of October, temperatures have dropped 20-30 degrees in New Mexico and there’s a definite slowdown in Hymenoptera activity. While it’s sad that the adults of this year will die soon, the larvae are just starting their life cycles in nests.
I don’t devote a ton of time to looking for wasps (I’d like to, just not enough hours in the day), but did manage to capture the first known photographs of Xanthoteras radicola
After years of iNatting I got normal pics of 2 Chrysidids and both went to species! They’re usually so fast, too many seen but not shot.
Thanks to iders also got 5 Crabronids ided to species, which is much better than average.
Also some new vespids and bees too. Noticed I pretty much ignored ants the whole year.
I got licked this year by a wasp and bumblebee decided to lick between my fingers and I told her she’s a weird bee to do that. Also saw males Colletes harassing females non stop.
I’m sure not everything idable is ided though, not enough experts in that field.
By no means an uncommon species, but I was stoked to see a bit of the courtship between this male and female Eastern Velvet Ant (Dasymutilla occidentalis).
2022 Hymenoptera observations by us: 452 observations, 74 species–of which 181 observations and 36 species have gone to RG. 3 of these are threatened species: 4 observations of Bombus affinis, 1 Bombus fervidus, 1 Bombus pensylvanicus.
The hardest to photograph were Anthidium oblongatum
Infrequently reported included Dufourea monardae
Of those needing ID, nearly 10% are Melissodes
Most recent lifer was this week Tremex columba:
It has already gotten cold (22F, -6C) and so activity is down 99% and the season will conclude within days or a week probably.
Our most commonly reported was Bombus griseocollis (46)
Just started using inat this year so I don’t have a lot of bee/wasp observations, but my favorite so far is this one of a paper wasp (likely a dark paper wasp) that was hanging out on my window last week due to the cold.
Also just wanted to quickly say y’all are so hard-working and do an amazing job getting all of the thousands of bee and wasp photos IDed. Really excited for the 2023 season! :-)
You all just need to pop down to Australia, wasp season is getting right into the swing of things :)
My story is that I have recently moved from close to the most Southern point of Australia to near-ish to the top and I’m enjoying a whole different diversity of wasps, particularly noting the increase in Vespidae, but the good kind rather than pest kind. I am sad that I might not see any/many Labeninae here, but looking forward to hopefully spotting a Brachycyrtine sometime.
My ‘bee RG %’ is equivalent to the global level and within a percent of the overall Hymenoptera number. Funny how statistics work… Both groups are statistically significantly better than my observations as a whole. Thanks again for all your IDs, Brian!
Mutillids are about 4,300 species worldwide, with 594 represented on iNaturalist. The top 4 observed species on iNat make up 31% of observations and they are “common eastern velvet ant” plus 3 large, red-hairy species. Fifth on the list is a large, white-haired species.
Pompilids are about 5,000 species worldwide and so many similar species. I usually leave Pepsis at genus unless it’s a very obvious species like mildei. #1 for most observed spider wasp is Pepsis thisbe and I wonder how many are misidentified (P grossa is actually NM’s state insect!) or photo quality that isn’t enough evidence. Here’s a snapshot of common confusions.
For parasitic wasps, most people need to be content with “as good as it can be” at levels above species. Even well-marked Ichneumonids like Lanugo have look-alikes (Comsocrytpus) and may also mimic Pompilids or Vespids. In addition, they are mostly small and don’t often sit still.
Yep it’s an unfortunate reality, and most need a good level of detail in photos or particular features clear (claws, mandible, propodeum - generally covered by the wings, etc) that can even be hard to see at 1x macro, so very unlikely to show up in live nature obs.
I’m trying to slowly make progress on the Aus species, every now and then I’m able to group a few together and key them out, but it’s slow… I’d love to visit the ANIC someday and get a good look at the specimen library!
I’ve been on iNat since the end of May but I was surprised how many wasps and bees are on my list.
But given my fondness for rich pollination sources (including large outdoor garden centres with table height potted ‘beacons’ – the lazy naturalist’s best friend!) and their usually high visibility, I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised.
Since I’m starting, just about everything is a lifer, and that’s 36 species. Some of my faves? This rare to my region bee wolf:
The picture is pretty lousy, but I love it because of the story about why it is so lousy. I was carefully standing on my tippy toes on a park bench trying to get a good shot of some Tulip Tree blooms when this huge speedy thing zoomed by. All I had was my phone but I managed to get in a shot before it zoomed off again. Fortunately, it was a butt shot and enough to get a quick RG.
Just a few days ago I was floating about one of the last patches in my neighbourhood of newly bloomed Goldenrod and was having a great time picking off some nice last minute shoppers. When I opened up a shot of one of the larger ones I noticed this in the background:
I haven’t got any ID yet but I’m thinking Tersilochinae. There were quite a few in the patch, I recalled afterwards.
And I only recently learned that the smallest insect of all is indeed a wasp. Fairyfly wasps (Hawaii, Costa Rica, Trinidad) have a body length of 0.5-1mm (!). If nothing else, it’s an absolute great way to convince yourself to spend more money on macro gear! (Or a trip to one of those beautiful tropical islands.)
I have found that with the speed and flightiness of this group, I’ve had the most success by putting the camera into high-rez video mode and ‘scrubbing’ the clips in a video editor later to get the most shots. This also allows you to see their motions in slow motion. And when you do, you really get a sense of just how graceful and coordinated these little wonders truly are.
