December 2018

I was saddened to (belatedly) read of Dave Saunders’ experience with hornets in October’s Pett and Pett Level News.  He clearly had a lucky escape.  I still think that they are magnificent insects but I would always recommend treating them with caution.  Both wasps and hornets behave differently around their nests than when they are out foraging.  If one stings you away from the nest because you accidentally disturbed it or it got caught in your clothes, it will be a defensive sting and it will fly away once it is free.  If, however, you are nearer to its nest, and it feels that you are a threat to its colony then when it stings it will release pheromones that will effectively ‘call out the troops’ and attract others to assist.  So Dave did well to run inside, and I expect that the colony has since been destroyed.  I am a nature lover but sometimes, reluctantly, it needs to be controlled.

I am writing this in mid-November and though the leaves on the trees have finally started to assume their autumn colours, many are still in full leaf.  Many plants are still in flower –we even have some self-seeded broad beans in our vegetable patch in flower at the moment, though we are not expecting them to produce any sort of crop, even if there is anything still around to pollinate them.  There are still a few butterflies around and I still find the occasional caterpillar on next year’s brassicas that should have been safely left alone by now. If autumn continues to get later and spring continues to get earlier, we will soon have nothing left to call winter and we will just have year round strange and violent weather.  The recent IPCC report that warned of catastrophic climate change unless drastic action is taken now, seems to have been ignored by the government, who despite their current preoccupation with Brexit, have done nothing to promote green policies, in fact, quite the reverse.   (The news today reports that a government advisory panel has at last seen the link between meat production and climate change, so maybe there is some hope.)

But does it matter?  I wrote last time about various species moving northwards, which is interesting but otherwise not normally a problem.  I think that the real problem as far as the natural world is concerned (aside from the violent weather events) is a matter of timing.  I came across a case recently that illustrates this well.  One of our scarcer plants is the Early Spider-orchid.  This is very similar in appearance to the more common Bee Orchid and the flowers attract bees in a similar way. (I wonder why it’s called a Spider-orchid!)  They are pollinated by a rather vaguely named solitary bee – the buffish mining bee (Andrena nigroaenea should you wish to address it formally) and the flowers emit a scent that resembles that of the female buffish mining bee, so that the male will be attracted to the flower.  In most species of solitary bee it is the male that emerges first, and the females usually appear up to a couple of weeks later.  So for the Early Spider Orchid, the best strategy is to flower after the males emerge, but before the females emerge.  If it flowers either before the males emerge, or after the females emerge, then it stands much less chance of being pollinated, and that timing is going wrong so the Early Spider Orchid is one of the many plants in decline.

Bee Orchid

The Early Spider-orchid is just one example and there are many more.  Evolution over millions of years has ensured that plants and animals make the right connections, whether that is blue tits relying on oak caterpillars to feed their chicks, or ivy bees pollinating ivy.  It has taken millions of years to get the timing right, and we have managed to screw it up in less than 200 years.  Depressing, isn’t it?  But there’s so much beauty still out there, whether it be a hornet, a stray late butterfly, or the autumn colours, so go out and enjoy it and protect it when you can.

Yellow-legged Mining Bee

Female Tawny Mining Bee - definitely tawny and not the least bit buffish