Nature's Place

I have seen these on many occasions but was never tempted to chase them – having such an erratic flight pattern and seeming never to land for more than an instant – until a few days ago. One stopped again and again, and yesterday another stopped to deposit eggs into a spider nest at the bottom of a shallow hole in the wood.

It happened on an old grey tree stump standing in a field of grass where ants had made their nest and were preparing for new life by prodding and biting the young winged queens to fly off and start a new colony.

The sun was high and warm with just the ants and this beautiful silver Ichneumon Wasp on the stump, and me, standing there. The wasp was hovering and touching the wood without landing until she found what she was looking for.

Somewhere to land where she could do what she was programmed to do, lay her eggs. As the ants were doing what they were programmed to do, reproduce – in their way – frenetic to the eye.

Everything reproduces in its way.

What a wonder she is.

© Mark Berkery ……. Click any picture and click again to enlarge