Monday 4 January 2010

Hanging around with friends

We cut a branch off a large tree near our farmhouse and I found these little insects bunched together on one leaf. They could be native bees. Does anyone know?

Update: They have been identified by a Flickr friend as male native bees, Euryglossa adelaidae.

1 comment:

Boobook said...

They look like "Paper Wasps" to me.
They do tend to hang around in groups, especially late in the afternoon, or evening.
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Their familiar nests are often stuck under verandas, these days. But before we brought houses to their country, they nested in shrubs and trees.
Pendant papery structures, with the entrance to the cells underneath the flat bottom.
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They can sting, but only tend to do so if you walk into their nesting site - as I did once. Not as bad as bees and other wasps. more like red hot needles, but not the lasting poisonous "sting" of a Bee or a bad wasp.
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Hope that helps.
Denis