The bees knees

A routine visit to the playground this lunchtime resulted in finding a small aggregation of bees around the loose soil a the base of trees nearby. Two very different bees that I managed to pot turned out to be Andrena clarkella and, new to me, Andrena barbilabris. The silver guys were very cute indeed. This is why I always carry pots!

Anacharis sp. from Dalgety Bay - a cynipid wasp in the Figitidae

Maybe an obscure start to the hymenoptera postings, but part of preparation for a more concerted effort on hymenoptera in 2021. This one was swept from low vegetation in woodland in November.

This is a very small wasp, but by wasp standards not a very, very small wasp!

Very helpful Lucid key to subfamilies of Figitidae:

https://www.waspweb.org/Cynipoidea/Figitidae/Keys/index.htm