WildBristol.uk - Discovering Wildlife in Bristol

Widespread throughout the UK but only common in the South and local in the North. Habitat includes: Anywhere with dead or rotting wood and a good supply of Aphids such as gardens, parks, allotments, churchyards, fields (fence posts), wasteland, scrub, woodland etc. Flight period: May to September. Life story: The Female nests in dead and decaying wood. The nest comprises a branched tunnel system, with each branch terminating in one to several cells. She collects Aphids and stuffs up to 40 in each cell. Diet: Larvae = Mainly aphids (Hemiptera: Aphididae). Parasites: Perithous scurra [as mediator], P. divinator, chrysidids: Pseudomalus violaceus, Omalus aeneus, hymenopterous parasitoids, Pseudomalus auratus. Other names include: Mourning Black Wasp.

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