An uninvited guest?
Ken Hill, 93 Elmshurst Drive, Hornchurch, Essex RM11 1NZ
On returning home from church on Sunday, I opened the living room fanlights to let
in some air, before sitting down to drink a cup of chicory. A loud buzz and a thump
against the glass door made me jump. My wife suggested it appeared to be a large
bumblebee, so I picked up an aquarium net to catch it and let it outside again.
A large animal flew from behind the curtain, alarming me by its size. I trapped it and
put a thin magazine between the glass and the net, took it into the kitchen and put a
glass jar over the animal as I released it from the net. Huh. a hornet? Indoors? In a
town? George Else's key to Social Wasps backed by Mike Chinery's Insects of Britain
and Northern Europe, convinced me that it was, but the queen hornet, according to the
descriptions was about 30 to 31mm in length, and tins creature looked to be nearer to
40mm. Colin Plant did not seem unduly surprised when I told him of the appearance
of Vespa crabro (L.) indoors. I released her in the garden, and she zoomed away like a
jet engine, quite irritated I thought, so I buzzed off in the opposite direction. Probably
she was looking for a suitable nest site?
References
Else, G. 1994. Identification - Social Wasps. British Wildlife 5 (5): 304-311.
Chinery, M. 1973. Insects of Britain & Northern Europe, a Field Guide. William
Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. London.
A bumblebee new to Essex
Ted Benton, 13 Priory Street, Colchester COl 2PY
Having 'completed' and sent off a book on the 'Bumblebees of Essex' to its publisher,
I attended, on the following day, a field trip to Old Hall Marshes. I was hoping to
study the small population of the scarce bumblebee Bombus muscorum, which occurs
there. In passing I noticed what looked to me to be a slightly odd individual of the
relatively common Bombus hortorum (Garden Bumblebee). It was a queen, and
feeding rather clumsily on White Clover flowers. I took a closer look, and recognised
it as Bombus jonellus: very similar to B. hortorum, but with a short (as against long, in
hortorum) face, and reddish hairs on the hind tibiae. So far as I can establish, there is
no previous reliable sighting of Illis species in Essex. The literature states the habitat
to be heathland, but in some accounts 'coastal' habitats are also mentioned. I was
unable to find any other specimens on that day. so it remains an open question
whether jonellus is a breeding species in the county, hitherto overlooked.
Essex Field Club Newsletter No. 33, September 2000
18