Taking respite from the hubbub of milling outdoor and bushcraft enthusiasts attending the Wilderness Gathering, I lie back under the shade of a conical bell tent. Gazing upwards into the canvas peak I watch a wasp skittering up the ivory fabric to the pinnacle, dropping down several feet then looping back up again, and again, and again.
Why insects behave like this is not known – indeed, if knowing the minds and motivations of close relatives can be challenging, the consciousness of animals as distantly related as wasps may be truly unknowable.
However, the best theory is that, before modern humans, flying upwards and towards the light was a reliable tactic for overcoming obstacles. Now, however, tents and conservatories become traps.
The wasp never drops low enough to access the open doorway, so eventually I take pity on it and gently capture it in an inch-high glass vial. Stooping out of the tent I get out my magnifying lens so I can give it its full name. A little girl, passing, asks what I am doing, so I explain. “I’m going to get well away because it will be very angry when you let it out!” she exclaims.
“Wasp” is an unsatisfactory descriptor: there are 9,000 species of British wasps and, although you probably have the right picture in your mind, I could be writing about any one of those species. In the US, black and yellow colonial wasps are collectively known as yellow-jackets, a helpful clarification. There are eight UK species of yellow-jackets, alongside their bigger cousin, the European hornet.
This one has straight go-faster thorax stripes and an anchor on her face – the common wasp. Unfortunately, this is also an unsatisfactory name, as Vespula vulgaris is no commoner that the German wasp, V germanica, and both species are vastly less abundant that they were in the 1980s when the UK still supported an abundance of their prey, other insects.
When I pop the lid off, she stops her frantic movements, calmly walks on to my thumb, delicately strokes her antennae and flies off, clearly bearing no grudge about her incarceration.
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