Wasps, Bees and Hovers for ID!

[Anzu]

Hello folks,

Went for a nice break in Dartmouth (Devon) and kept sneaking into the awesome garden which is packed with a wonderful array of plants and vegetables of all kinds to hunt out the insects.

I now have a bunch of wasps, hovers and bees in need of identification.

1: A lovely mason wasp I think which disappeared into a flower and emerged with a grub of some kind, I have more photos of this guy if needed.




2: Watched a spider and this wasp battle in a web, the spider frantically tried to wrap up the wasp while it struggled but in the end failed to keep it. The wasp got very angry . I was thinking towards German wasp?



3: A very small flying thing, um sawfly?



4: A smallish hover-fly. Sorry just this shot.



5: Another smallish hover-fly.



6: A teany tiny bee feeding on mint flowers next to lake in woods, Sorry I had a hard time photographing this guy.



7: Another tiny bee, I watched this guy feeding on this flower for a good while then went inside to get my camera and it flew away after one shot when I came back



8: Found darting into holes near to coast, I am pretty sure this is an Ivy bee (Colletes hederae). A lovely looking bee too .



Thank you for looking!

[Geoff F]

Well I will try to add a few suggestions.

The Mason Wasp seems like Ancistrocerus nigricornis but there are a few similar alternatives.

Going by the face stripe I would expect the wasp to be a Common Wasp although it does have some small face spots.

The Sawfly is one of the Athalia species but I would have to check which one.

The first hoverfly looks like Eupeodes luniger. And I would say Syrphus ribesii for the second.

I will pass on those bees.

But the last one certainly seems to be an Ivy Bee. I live 20 miles further along the coast and have a couple of colonies very close to the sea there.

[Jason Green]

1 - Ancistrocerus sp., 4 - Eupeodes sp., 5 - Syrphus sp., 6 - Lasioglossum sp., 7 - Halictus sp., 8 - Colletes sp.

[JRsbugs]

I wouldn't like to guess which Ancistrocerus species the first is.

The wasp is Vespula germanica.

Agree with Eupeodes luniger and Syrphus ribesii.

Athalia circularis is a possibilty for the sawfly.

The small bees on mint are male Lasioglossum, possibly L. calceatum.

Next bee on Osteospermum could be Halictus but I can't be sure.

[Anzu]

Thank you for all you lovely replies

Hooray! I finally found that Eupeodes luniger I was looking for, and the German wasp (even if it is hanging upside down in web )