Wasp scrum down

I was up on Mynydd Rhiw enjoying the summer weather with fine views across Llŷn. At the summit were loads of insects and on the rocks by my feet was a wasp scrum down. It looked a bit violent and I didn’t want to get too close in case I disturbed them.

Looking back at the film footage it looks like 6 or 7 wasps were killing a queen. Or were they mating?

In the middle sequence there was a pair of wasps stacked on top of the back of the queen whilst another stack of 4 wasps approached from the front. Was the wasp at the front a brave volunteer to confront the queen or a conscript?

Royal Voyeur

Typing away I had the feeling that I was being watched. And sure enough I was, by royalty, a queen wasp voyeur. I keyed in ‘lifecycle wasp’ and was amazed. 100,000 species of wasp! My queen was moving slowly, evidently just awoken from her hibernation. I wonder which part of my study she’d been using, maybe a quiet bookshelf? Waking up on 18^th May must be leaving it quite late?

Primed with the sperm of a last year’s drone (possibly several) this queen needs all the energy she can get to build her nest and start laying. At the start she is totally self-sufficient producing and caring for batches of sterile female workers which eventually take over the care and maintenance of the nest and the offspring.

Later that day there was a second wasp which emerged in the living room taking position on the rim of a glass of water. Maybe over-wintering close to the log burner had made it dehydrated.