Photo by Philip Buckley
Dear Readers, you might remember that last year, reader Philip Buckley shared some photos and film of the ivy bees in his garden with us all, and if you haven’t seen it before, have a look here – https://bugwomanlondon.com/2023/09/29/amazing-ivy-bees/
What wonderful little bees they are! There are still a few on the ivy on the County roads here in East Finchley too. I’d love to know where they’re nesting, it can’t be far away.
One clear way to tell if what you’re looking at is a bee or a fly is ‘does it have pollen on its hind legs or underside?’. Some bees have very well-developed ‘pollen collection mechanisms’, known as corbicula, or ‘little baskets’ – you can see these on honeybees and bumblebees, and you can see blobs of pollen on the legs of the ivy bees in the photos above. You will never see pollen baskets on a fly. But flies can be surprisingly good bee-mimics. Have a look at the hoverfly in the film below. In particular, the way that it wobbles its abdomen up and down can look very convincing. This fly, though, is collecting nectar for its own pleasure/sustenance, rather than collecting pollen to feed its larvae.
I think this is one of the Eristalis hoverflies, probably Eristalis tenax, but I’d need to have taken a better photograph to be sure. Notice those big compound eyes, which again distinguish hoverflies from bees. It’s worth noting that hoverflies are often excellent bee/wasp/hornet mimics – anything to avoid getting eaten by those pesky predators, particularly the birds!
Hoverfly in the centre, ivy bee bottom right…
And I was somewhat relieved to spot a couple of ‘ordinary’ wasps. Any wasps nests will be breaking up about now, and the workers will finally have time to get some sugar for themselves before they die. It’s hard to begrudge them something sweet after all their hard work all summer.
I also saw 2 red admirals and a peacock butterfly this afternoon – they always pop out when I don’t have my camera, but it was lovely to see them, especially as they’ve been so scarce all summer. Sometimes there’s a ‘fall’ of butterflies migrating from southern Europe – the most spectacular one that I’ve ever seen was when painted lady butterflies descended on Culpeper Community Garden in Islington when I was working there. There must have been fifty butterflies! It was like being in a butterfly house. No such luck today, but after the damp spring and dodgy summer I’m grateful for whatever I see.
And let’s close with some more of Philip’s ivy bees. They always cheer me up.
