#pollinating insect

Photo by Phil Grobe of Bridgetown, Western Australia. He also sent video of a mass emergance by thousands of them emerging from his paddocks. 

 These Vespid wasps nest in clayey soil, the burrows characterized by mud entrance turrets, vertical shafts and horizontal cells whose cemented earthen walls are polished and waterproofed internally. Each cell received a loose egg prior to being mass-provisioned with a loaf of pollen-nectar mixture and plugged with mud.

 The White-flowering Bloodwood Corymbia calophylla (formerly Eucalyptus calophylla) is the sole food source, and there are a lot of that large tree in bloom around Phil's paddock. 

A frequent problem on insect ID groups is somebody submitting a photo that was apparently taken from a few kilometers away, with a potato. And if the photo is then posted to Facebook the quality goes from merely garbage to utterly feculent dogshit. Usually, your only response can be something like the following -

As an example of the kind of thing I have to deal with on a regular basis, the following photo of a ‘fly-looking thing on mint flowers’, in Melbourne. At least the photographer admitted in advance the photo was poor, and wasn’t actually expecting an immeadiate answer or a refund on his pest control payments (I do pest control for a living - most of the IDs are just for fun).

That said, sometimes you manage to ID them anyway.

Photo by the Chews, in Brisbane. 

Eristalinus (Lathyrophthalmus) punctulatus is one of the hoverflies that have large aquatic larva with a long butt-snorkel, commonly known as rat-tailed maggots, that live in drains, swamps, sewage ponds and other stagnant water with lots of microorganisms for them to eat. The adults are enthusiastic pollinators, but I suppose nectar must make a nice change from rancid liquid feces. 

Given I’ve just discussed orchids that are pollinated by deluded male Tiphiid wasps, here’s a few of the wasps. Unsurprisingly, since the last few months are peak wasp-orchid and general wildflower season here in WA, there’s a lot of the Tiphiid Flower wasps about - at least 5 and more likely 6 different species in these photos. Actually telling you which species these are, on the other hand, is a different matter entirely, not least because the taxonomy of the family is desperately in need of revision. There’s ongoing argument about whether a lot of them should be split off into the Thynnidae.