A scorcher today. It was 29°C already at 11:00. I’d normally be on the Downs then but have been home over an hour already.

Saw the first Peacock (Aglais io) butterfly since 28^th April and there were three new insects added to my list – Median Wasp (Dolichovespula media), Nettle-tap moth (Anthophila fabriciana) and a tumbling flower beetle (Mordellistena neuwaldeggiana).

Nature note for the day

Can you tell a Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris) from a German Wasp (Vespula germanicus) or a Median Wasp (Dolichovespula media)? Well, the best way to differentiate them is by their facial features, but when a wasp is on a flower its head is bent forward and the face is usually buried in the flower, so that is not particularly helpful for field identification. So what else can you use? Fortunately, the Median Wasp has different striping on the abdomen, but all three have different markings on the side of the thorax. If your eyesight is good enough and you get close enough (I know many people have a fear of getting this close to wasps) you can tell them apart as my composite image below shows. All of these were photographed by me on Banstead Downs.

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