Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Nic Wilson

Country diary: A great pretender lurking on the riverbank

A female wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi) in Bedfordshire in 2021
A female wasp spider (Argiope bruennichi) in Bedfordshire in 2021. Photograph: Alan Garner

Great swathes of water mint along the River Hiz have attracted an astonishing array of pollinators, given the paucity of insects this summer. Almost every pale lilac flowerhead hosts a different species – green-veined white and small heath butterflies, mint moths, drone flies, honeybees and bumblebees.

The drone flies are methodical, probing each tiny tubular flower in turn, while the green-veined whites flit from cluster to cluster. A wasp plumehorn (or lesser hornet hoverfly) climbs into view, its honey-yellow abdomen barred with black. Two huge, brown compound eyes meet on the top of the head, indicating that it’s a male. Named for its mimicry and feathery aristae (bristles on the antennae), this hoverfly species has larvae that feed on wasp and hornet grubs.

With his warning colours and a wingspan of 30mm, the plumehorn is impressive, but he’s not the most captivating pretender on the riverbank. Lurking in the long grass, I spot a bulbous yellow abdomen with black scalloped banding, then another – and 16 striped legs. They belong to a couple of female wasp spiders (Argiope bruennichi), another species that mimics wasps to protect itself from predation and which was first recorded in Hertfordshire in 2005. Wasp spiders mainly prey on grasshoppers, but – despite several prospective victims in the vicinity – these two are catching pollinators. Three inert parcels already dangle from their orb webs. One looks to be a wasp and, as I watch, a black muscid fly blunders into the sticky silk and is swiftly encased.

I’m surprised that neither web has an obvious stabilimentum (a line of dense silk whose function is still under debate). When I found my first wasp spider in 2021, 99 years after the UK’s first record in East Sussex, it was the stabilimentum that gave it away, zigzagging conspicuously from the centre of the web to the base. Perhaps these are old webs, or the UV-reflecting structure is unnecessary in this location, for these spiders have chosen the perfect ambush site.

Although most of the pollinating insects will leave the riverbank sated, some have unwittingly supped their last. Lured in by a cocktail of minty oils and sweet nectar – a chalk stream mojito – all that remains for them now is Death in the Afternoon.

• Country diary is on Twitter/X at @gdncountrydiary

• Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian’s Country Diary, 2018-2024 (Guardian Faber) is published on 26 September; pre-order now at the guardianbookshop.com and get a 20% discount

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.