Darwin wasps

  Ichneumon wasps in the garden, menacing with their twitchy antennae and jerky movements, taking a break from parasitising insect larvae to satisfy their own energy needs.

Black Darwin wasp Ichneumon delicatorius

Yellow-striped Darwin wasp Ichneumon xanthorius feeding on nectar from lovage flowers. Its larvae develop parasitically inside the caterpillars of moths and butterflies.

 They are known as Darwin wasps because their gruesome life cycles played a role in undermining the great naturalist’s belief in a benevolent creator. “I cannot persuade myself,” he wrote, “that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their [larval stages] feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars.”

Angelica and hemp agrimony - seething with insect life in late summer

 Angelica sylvestris, a member of the Apiaceae (carrot family) is surely one of the best umbellifers for supplying insects with pollen and nectar. It thrives in moist soils places, often in dappled sunlight along woodland edges. The pictures below are of a greenbottle, a Darwin wasp (ichneumon) and social paper wasps feeding on nectar from its numerous tiny florets. The nectar is secreted in small amounts on each individual flower, so is easily accessible to short-tongued insects, without them needing to expend much energy; all they need do is wander across the umbel, incidentally pollinating the flowers as they feed.

Hemp agrimony Eupatorium cannabinum, a tall, pink-flowered member of the daisy family (Asteraceae) seems to be flowering spectacularly well along the Durham coast near Nose's Point this summer, in the company of meadowsweet and creeping thistle. Soldier beetles (last photo) are amongst the vast number of insects that visit its flowers, in the company of bees, butterflies and many species of fly.