Water figwort and its pollinators
Water figwort occurs by water bodies in many places in the county. Every summer I am intrigued to see wasps avidly feeding from the tiny, fig-coloured flowers.
Not so this summer. The flowers on several plants growing by a local lake and by our garden pond remained unvisited until yesterday, when a single wasp briefly appeared on one in the garden.
Local photographer Chris Jackson however did see a hymenopteran on figwort at the lake. Unusually it was a Eurasian hornet rather than a wasp as you can see.
Hornets are essentially predators of other insects but clearly also find these flowers irresistible