Wasps in the Bookshelf

[petermorwood]

Suddenly there are wasps in the bookshelf in the upstairs bathroom. (See this photoset at Flickr for all the pictures you could possibly desire.)

The wasps in these photos have a black body with three widely-spaced yellow stripes, a waist that isn’t excessively tapered or extended, black (or at least very dark) wings and club-like rather than curled antennae. What they seem to be storing in their nest-cells – actually the bracket-holes of the bookshelf! – are immature froghoppers (Philaenus spumarius), a species of small cicada. The cells are then sealed over with mud brought either from our own garden pond or from the small lake in the meadow behind our house.

However...

The only photograph (on Dave Element’s Wildlife Web Page, one of the more comprehensive pictorial sites) which even vaguely resemble “our” wasps is this:

http://www.david.element.ukgateway.net/hymenoptera5diggerwasps.htm,

the "Digger Wasp", Cerceris rybyensis. Unfortunately the website photo doesn’t give a clear view of the antennae, but the shape and position of the two stripes (is there an unseen third one under all that mud?) is similar to our bookshelf wasps. Though this is called a "digger" wasp, they may regard the bracket-holes on the shelf as pre-fab dwellings; certainly the way they close off each one with mud matches what they'd do with a self-made nest in a sandbank.

We have a copy of John Crompton’s “The Hunting Wasp” (Collins 1948) which is probably well out of date but nonetheless very entertaining for extremely amateur insect-watchers such as ourselves. (John C. was the brother of Richmal Crompton, author of the “Just William” stories, and it’s obvious that they shared a similar sense of humour.) He has a lot of fun gently teasing the behaviour of French naturalist Jean-Henri Fabre, whose books “Hunting Wasps” and “More Hunting Wasps” are easily available on-line; Fabre, it seems, was more, er, demonstrative and enthusiastic than dignified when it came to his field of study...

Crompton suggests that froghopper-hunting wasps are usually Harpactus
or Gorytes, but we haven’t turned up a photo of either.

We’d be grateful for any information from amateur (or professional) entomologists or hymenoptrists about what these harmless little creatures might be: they make a pleasant change from the inhabitants of the humming Vespula vulgaris nest under the holly tree. So far the common wasps haven’t bothered us, and we haven’t bothered them, but any nonsense and in the words of B. Bunny Esq., “This means war!”

Comments

(frozen comment)

[rebelsheart]

No advice, but as per directiosn elsewhere...

"Attack!"

Uhm... welcome to LiveJournal? :)

(frozen comment)

[wolfette]

all I can say is, yup, those are wasps, not bees, and they look kind of ... aggressive.

(frozen comment)

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

Welcome to LJ!

(frozen comment)

[korenwolf.livejournal.com]

Wasps... wasps evil! Bees, bees nice, well honey bees are nice, except mine which are psychotic and very very aggressive. Honey is nice though, bee stings aren't (though layers of protection) and did I mention it's starting to look like I've got a reasonably 'interesting' reaction to bee stings? :) [not necessarily the best trait in a beekeeper]

(frozen comment)

[artela.livejournal.com]

Getting stung often enough can help to trigger the interesting reactions...

(frozen comment)

[badninja.livejournal.com]

Bookshelf in a bathroom? Wouldn't that be a moldy combination?

(frozen comment)

[korenwolf.livejournal.com]

Depends on how well ventilated it's kept I guess.

(frozen comment)

[petermorwood.livejournal.com]

We're lucky in that our bathroom off the main bedroom is quite literally that, the one with the bath in it. No shower. The shower room is off the guest bedroom across the landing (my office, unless there are guests.) No bath.

Daily (or in the present hot weather, several daily) showers are for keeping clean and staying Nice To Be Near, but a bath, a proper bath, should be a protracted sybaritic luxury, with a book, a glass of wine, music on the player etc., to be enjoyed at length every couple or few weeks.

There are no bookshelves in the shower-room; reading in the bath is lazy and relaxing, reading in the shower is terminally bad for the book.

(frozen comment)

[beadslut.livejournal.com]

WAsps in the house are unwelcome no matter the variety, but it is lovely to see you on livejournal.

(frozen comment)

[mistwolf.livejournal.com]

Welcome to LJ!

We once had wasps get into our basement and make quite an extensive nest in the fiberglass insulation. Not pleasant! Especially as, at the time, said basement was where my family was living. ;)

(frozen comment) Yeah

[robotech-master.livejournal.com]

Darn those white anglo-saxon protestants, anyway!

(What?)

(frozen comment) Re: Yeah

[cjmr.livejournal.com]

ugggh!

(bangs head on desk)

(frozen comment) Re: Yeah

[petermorwood.livejournal.com]

Was that what's called a waspish comment? :-)

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[schaezen.livejournal.com]

All I know about wasps are that they don't die after stinging; I can witness personally as the one that stung my nose did it three times. This was, of course, many years ago, and has since caused many episodes of ducking under tables at embarassing times (like the first meeting with the new in-laws)...

Welcome to LJ!!

(frozen comment)

[aeshna_uk]

What pretty - and quite harmless - little beasties! See if anything here looks familiar; if not, I'll have a poke about at work and see what I can come up with. Hymenoptera isn't really my group (I've mostly worked with Diptera), but I'm sure I can find someone who knows 'em!

Try using Google Image Search for both Gorytes and Harpactus - I can get something up for both, although they don't look like they're what you're after.

Smitty (Token Entomologist)

(frozen comment) Wasp latest

[aeshna_uk]

Word from the Entom Department here at the NHM is that it's definitely a eumenid ("potter" or "mason" wasp, Eumenes or closely related genera), but that the guy who could likely take it to species is on holiday right now! Ancistrocerus was mentioned, but apparently that genus only takes lep larvae (caterpillars) as prey, not froghoppers.

Happy googling! More updates as I get them....

(frozen comment)

[kradical.livejournal.com]

Wow, they'll let anybody have an LJ....

Welcome to the loony bin, mein freund!

(frozen comment)

[(Anonymous)]

Considering that it was an ex psych nurse who dropped me in it, I find your use of "loony bin" strangely apt.

(frozen comment)

[kradical.livejournal.com]

Good point, well made....

(frozen comment)

[keristor.livejournal.com]

Certainly War On Wasps! Nasty things...

BTW, I love the disguise of the username. No one will ever guess who you are really...

(D. put me up to it. Really. Blame her...)

(frozen comment)

[petermorwood.livejournal.com]

Blame her...?

Of course I do.

Oh, and the username. Yeah, devastating subtlety, I don't think. Guess who set up the LJ. More blame. But at least there won't be the mental hiccup of "who the hell is ThrogMorton (or whatever) when they're at home...?"

(frozen comment)

[artela.livejournal.com]

Only thing I can suggest is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wasp
:-)

(frozen comment)

[jmswallow.livejournal.com]

Hey Peter, welcome to LJville. We've got vodka.

(frozen comment)

[petermorwood.livejournal.com]

Vodka...? Takes me back to the research I had to do for the Prince Ivan books. I liked the 43% ABV honey stuff best. Now that was mead for grownups! Na'zdroviye' (hic!)

(frozen comment) D'Oh!

[petermorwood.livejournal.com]

So there I was, tapping away at my replies and hitting "submit", and only now do I notice that I've been sending them as Anonymous. Headslap (but no sudden backward movement in chair; once is enough.)

Oh well, at least I've got to mid-July of 2006 without once having to scribble out 2005 on a cheque...

Update: I've corrected most of the misnomers, except for one, 'cos I don't know what might happen if I delete a comment that's been commented on... (Implosion? Bright sparkly lights? Or something unimpressive? Either way, I shall Leave Well Alone.)

(frozen comment)

[xipuloxx.livejournal.com]

Hail and welcome, wandering Ulsterer! (just noticed you've joined LJ)

I once had wasps nesting in the attic above my bedroom. It sounded like they were right above my head, actually. Scritch scratch scritch all bloody day and night. I refused to sleep in that room till they were all Daleked. Terrify me, they do.

Anyway, see you at Mecon!
(Now you're trying to figure out who I am...clue: no surname to be used on LJ, please, but I'm Mark.)

(frozen comment)

[uitlander]

This from the BBC website may be of passing interest - it appeared late last night and is a summary of an article in Science. The article itself is here. It main focus is reducing biodiversity amongst bees, but I think mentions wasps as well.

(frozen comment)

[xnamkrad.livejournal.com]

some years ago we came home from a daughters first communion to find several hundred dead wasps in the front room and inside the front door. We got an exterminator as the swarm had settled in the wall, but he could not come till the evening - the swarm being too aggressive during the heat of the day. The sound of approx 100,000 wasps being gassed is a sound you never want to hear again.

BTW - is it too late to say hi and welcome to LJ