Cuckoo or jewel wasp

Somewhat over a week ago Ceridwen posted a photo of a mason wasp,and mentioned a jewel-like cuckoo wasp that lays eggs in the mason wasp's cells, where their larvae consume the host egg or larva while it is still young, then consuming the provisions. These jewel wasps are often highly sculptured, with brilliantly colored metallic-like bodies,usually red and jade green, but sometimes just green or gold.

Cuckoo wasps are only seen occasionally due to their small size and secretive habits. However, in open, sunny habitats they are often abundant on flowers and small shrubs, where they feed on nectar, and can often be found resting on posts or logs. They have a thick, hard cuticle (outer covering) that is covered with pits. The cuticle provides protection from stings and strong biting mandibles of host insects, which may attack the cuckoo wasp. In addition, the underside of the abdomen is concave and allows the wasp to roll up into a protective ball, another defensive mechanism.

Chris and I spent the morning recording quadrats at Portholme Meadow, the largest unimproved hay-meadow in the UK,and considered to be of European importance for wildlife. It's a stunning place, with huge populations of species such as great burnet, meadowsweet, pepper saxifrage, lady's bedstraw, bird's-foot trefoil, common knapweed, yellow rattle and ox-eye daisy that extend as far as the eye can see. It also has large populations of breeding skylark, reed bunting and corn bunting - and the metallic jangling call of the latter species was almost constant while we were working.

We are there for another two days this coming week and I hope to get some photographs to post, but today it didn't look its best under grey skies and with a brisk north-easterly wind. And I scarcely ever remember being so cold in June - a huge contrast to our sweltering day at Fancott last week. We had to have hot leek and potato soup when we got home, to remove the chill!