Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Family FORMICIDAE (ants)
Family ANDRENIDAE
Ants, such as the generally abundant and well-known
common black ant ( Lasius niger ), are sometimes
harmful to ornamental plants but are of only minor
importance. They often ascend plants to collect nectar
from flowers, occasionally also damaging young buds
of trees and shrubs in their quest for moisture. More
frequently, the presence of ants on plants is an
indication that the leaves, shoots or branches are
infested by honeydew-excreting pests such as aphids
and scale insects; ants sometimes construct earthen
shelters on plants to protect colonies of aphids, notably
conifer aphids (genus Cinara ) (p. 87-90) and root
aphids such as Maculolachnus submacula (p. 91).
Subterranean activities by ants are also harmful,
damage most often being restricted to the accidental
disturbance of seedlings and established plants as soil
around the roots becomes loosened; seriously affected
plants wilt and die, damage being most severe in hot,
dry conditions. Ants are sometimes troublesome on
lawns, particularly on those freshly constructed in light,
sandy soils inhabited by the yellow meadow ant ( Lasius
flavus ), this usually being the damaging species. Ants
also remove seeds from pots, seed boxes and seed trays,
but losses are rarely significant.
A relatively large group of often very hairy, solitary,
burrowing bees; the tongue short, ovate and pointed; the
abdomen somewhat flattened dorsoventrally.
Andrena fulva (Müller in Allioni)
syn. A. armata (Gmelin in Linnaeus)
Tawny burrowing bee
An often abundant species, nesting in the soil and
sometimes causing concern when its burrows are
formed in lawns. Widely distributed in Europe.
DESCRIPTION
Adult female: 12-14 mm long; thorax and abdomen
clothed in bright brown hairs, those on the abdomen
distinctly reddish; hairs on the face, legs, at tip of
abdomen and on the underside of the body black. Adult
male: 12-14 mm long; body clothed in mainly brown
hairs.
1068
Family VESPIDAE ( 1068-1069 )
Social wasps ( Vespula spp.) are unimportant pests of
ornamental plants but they are sometimes a nuisance in
gardens and nurseries, commonly establishing their
colonies in banks, buildings, hollow trees and walls. Such
wasps frequently visit fences, sheds, shrubs and trees to
scrape off pieces of dead wood which are formed into a
papery material used in the construction of their nests;
they also gnaw tissue from the woody stems of
ornamentals such as Dahlia ; severely injured plants then
collapse. Although in this way sometimes injurious,
social wasps are also beneficial, particularly during the
spring and early summer when they collect large numbers
of harmful caterpillars and other insect pests which they
then feed to their developing brood. Nest-building
hornets ( Vespa crabro ) also sometimes cause damage to
ornamental trees and shrubs, including ash ( Fraxinus
excelsior ), birch ( Betula ), Dahlia , elder ( Sambucus ), lilac
( Syringa ), poplar ( Populus ) and willow ( Salix ). Adult
hornets are readily distinguished from social wasps by
their larger size (queens up to 35 mm long; workers up to
24 mm long), their mainly reddish-brown head and
thorax, and by the position of the ocelli which lie anterior
to the hind margin of the compound eyes at some distance
from the back of the head.
1068 Worker social wasp ( Vespula sp.).
1069
1069 Queen hornet ( Vespa crabro ).
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