Nomada leucocephala Wasp Parasitoid of Andrena Bees

e6filmuser · May 6, 2016

Yesterday I was checking if our lawn was dry enough for a second cut of the year. This bee was lurking on the leaves and plainly found it far for dry. Drops of dew were preventing it from flying. It would turn around and walk to other leaves when I pointed my lens at it. Usually, there was an OOF leaf I needed to move, my action caused the wasp to walk on a little.

Anyway a got some useful shots at a small range of magnifications, requiring only a couple of slight crops for composition purposes.

I am fairly sure that this is N. leucopthalma, whose host is Andrena apicata or A. clarkella. (I believe my recent image was of an A.nitida female.

(I later saw what was probably the same bee investigating crevices between loosely stacked bricks).

EM-1, Kiron 105 at f16, twin flash, hand-held (kneeling in wet grass).

Images shown in reverse order to shooting

Correction: In a moment of lapse of concentration I have referred to this as a wasp. Although it looks like one it is a bee. I have also used the incorrect name in the topic title, which I cannot edit.

Harold

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