Yet More Wasps!
Having a variety of "little (5-6mm) black wasps" at my garden "bee-hotel" at the moment, I decided to open an extension. This is just a sawn branch from our log-pile and I provided a number of drilled 2mm and 4mm holes.
Almost immediately I had some of these arrive. I have to confess to knowing extremely little about wasps, but with the ivory-coloured markings on the mandibles, I thought it possibly an aphid-hunting Passaloecus wasp. Since taking this photograph, I've seen similar wasps provisioning nests with aphids. Just to complicate matters, I also have what look like Pemphredon wasps also provisioning cells with aphids. These wasps do look a little different though (see previous images) and don't have the mandibular markings.
Yet More Wasps!
Having a variety of "little (5-6mm) black wasps" at my garden "bee-hotel" at the moment, I decided to open an extension. This is just a sawn branch from our log-pile and I provided a number of drilled 2mm and 4mm holes.
Almost immediately I had some of these arrive. I have to confess to knowing extremely little about wasps, but with the ivory-coloured markings on the mandibles, I thought it possibly an aphid-hunting Passaloecus wasp. Since taking this photograph, I've seen similar wasps provisioning nests with aphids. Just to complicate matters, I also have what look like Pemphredon wasps also provisioning cells with aphids. These wasps do look a little different though (see previous images) and don't have the mandibular markings.