21st July 2017
On Friday evening I had just arrived at Pat & Margaret's house and as has become a habit I dawdled down the path through the front garden, looking for insects on the flowers. This time I was barely in the gate when I noticed a very attractive Ruby-tailed Wasp on the Canadian Goldenrod. You may remember that I saw one at the start of the month (see the blog entry here), but this one was even nicer. Most of these species, of which there are about 30, have a bluey-green thorax and red abdomen. Today's one however was alternating in colour. It was rather windy so I had to hold the plant still to photograph it, but instead of flying off it crawled onto my hand! It is one of a species pair, so I can't say what species it is (Hedychrum niemelai or H. nobile) but that doesn't really matter, they are amazing insects, and it was great to get such good views.
