Sunday 27 April 2014

Bee-fly at Plas Newydd

For some reason I've always wanted to see a Bee-fly but I've never connected with one, until last weekend. It was on an Easter egg hunt at Plas Newydd on Anglesey. At one of the Easter egg hunt stations I suddenly noticed a Bee-fly and got a little excited! They are quite fat, and fly like what I imagine a Bee-hawkmoth may fly like, quite slow. They have a massive probosis and quite well marked wings. I think they only fly early on in the year and they parasitise (solitary?) wasps. One wasp sp. is in one of these shots but there were quite a few buzzing around - solitary?. Does anyone know what the wasp is?  Also do we get the two Bee-hawkmoths in North Wales? If so where and when is the best time to look? As I was photographing it my children spotted some Red Squirrels which I had to go and look as as I didn't have the nerve to say
 "No, I'm not coming - I'm photographing a fly!"