Struggling for two weeks to finally shift a heavy cold and chest infection, I took a laborious bike ride to Corbridge with the plan of checking out the several bushes of ivy on the way back to the Tyne.
In fact the areas where the ivy was actually flowering were still fairly scarce. South of Styford I did find one good crop that was popular with honey and bumblebees but no sign of any ivy bees, which I think could possibly be found in the area. One thing I did find was a rather large hoverfly which according to my research is a pied plume horn (genus volucella.)
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| Pied Plumehorn |
A little further on there was a south-facing bush with more bee action going on, plus a visit by a red admiral to nectar on the ivy flowers.
My attention was mainly drawn by a very large queen bumblebee with a decidedly brown tail. I was trying to figure out which species of queen it was. The matter was resolved when it was sexually assaulted by what was clearly a buff-tailed male so that I once again found myself witnessing insect pornography. The tussle went on quite a long time and, when I tried to move some leaves for a better view, spilled over onto my glove.
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| The Queen |
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After all this, I stopped off again at Wylam to see how the known ivy bees again. The action was considerable:
Ivy Bees
A large area of ivy that hadn't flowered yet was also found near the Tyne East of Bywell. This might be worth further investigation as ivy bees are known to favour river banks.
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