Nomads

Humans love to classify; one way of feeling we have control in a chaotic world is to cut it up into small chunks and label them. People then get annoyed when the world breaks down the barriers and creates fuzzy margins. Sentient and non-sentient, plant and animal, male and female

Apocrita (ants, wasps & bees) have been in the fossil record for 200 million years. A separate sub-group we call bees has only existed for 100 million (and our familiar honeybee for only 3-10 million). People are usually surprised to learn there are over 250 species of bee in UK. More surprising still, there are around 9,000 species of wasp, though many of those are so small you need a microscope. Large wasps with stingers still number around 250 species, similar to bees

Bees are often described as 'vegetarian wasps'; wasps generally feed their young meat, mostly from insects they have predated. Bees mainly feed their young nectar/honey and pollen. Inevitably, however, there are exceptions on both sides. There are wasps that live mainly on nectar, and there are 30 or so species of bee that all look pretty much like this and parasitise other bee species. These parasites are called Nomad Bees; their hosts (or victims) are mainly the many species of mining bee - solitary bees that lay eggs in holes in the ground

The adults, like this one, may fuel their short lives purely on nectar, but their young hatch and grow inside the nest of their host species, eating not only the pollen that was destined for the host larva, but the larva itself (or egg, if it hasn't hatched yet) and, in fact, any sibling parasite larvae in the same nest (unless they eat it first). As a vegetarian myself, I'm not sure we are of the same tribe

Ultimately, the only difference people can define between bees and wasps comes down to small details of morphology: the presence of hairs on the body, having combs on the front legs for cleaning antennae (or combing pollen from those hairs into pollen baskets on the back legs, in many species), and so forth. It's hard to believe there aren't some exceptions even to these nerdish rules. The bee doesn't care; call her what you like, she will not change her ways

Our first act after homecoming was a tour of the garden - delighted to find it hosting many kinds of insects, depite the low temperatures, overnight frosts, wind and rain that have happened while we were away. The progress of the year cannot be held back. The cherry has bloomed and gone over in the nine days we were away - it does not await our pleasure. This blossom may be faded, but the nomad thinks it's worth stopping by