Author Koh Lin â—¦
Sometimes the common name can provide all you need to know… but now and again, it may not say enough. Life is funny like that, as what you see at that moment, may not be the whole story.
Take for instance the Blue Hairy Flower Wasp, family Austroscolia (for those interested in the scientific classification). When I saw my very first big hairy flower wasp, it was a wow moment for me. It was gigantic, compared to the European Honey Wasp and looked very black. Of course, I admired it at arms length, whilst taking photos… she was a beauty. I say she, coz most female wasps are larger then the male, although I have never seen a male, so nothing to compare…
Now it is all in the angle, or the time of day, the bouncing of light and shadow… and maybe a flutter of the wings… and suddenly, I could see she was blue!
That was back in December 2022… so a bit of time elapse before I saw the Blue Hairy Flower Wasp again… and this time I knew exactly what she was (although I did still put it up on my favourite Facebook groups for confirmation 🙂).
It is November 2024… almost two years apart and the cusp between spring to summer. Whilst this time, the Blue Hairy Flower Wasp was not at the same small fish pond, it was actually just a few steps away from a larger fish pond… this spacious garden was a haven for insect species.
So there she was, just patiently waiting for me to take some photos… not moving but tilting her head ever so slightly to keep me in view. Her folded wings were a gossamer blue… metallic-irridescent blue.
It was funny, but at the time I did not notice, too busy taking photos on my mobile phone and moving ever so slowing. It was later, looking back over the photos, that I saw in 3 of the photos, the flecks on the wings… they were there and then they were gone… strange.
Now in researching Austroscolia, there are two very similar species, Austroscolia nitida and Austroscolia soror. The Austroscolia from 2022 was ID to Austroscolia nitida, whilst the one from this year I am still awaiting feedback on the ID.
Current information say the main difference between Austroscolia nitida and Austroscolia soror is the density of punctures on the pronotum, mesothorax, and gaster, in that Austroscolia nitida varifrons has denser punctures on the pronotum, mesothorax, and gaster to that seen on Austroscolia soror.
Scientific classification ain’t easy… 🙂
Check out the following pages on Austroscolia:
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Subphylum: Hexapoda
- Class: Insecta
- Informal: Pterygotes
- Order: Hymenoptera
- Superfamily: Vespoidea
- Family: Scoliidae
- Genus: Austroscolia
- Species:
- Austroscolia commixta Turner, 1909
- Austroscolia nitida (Smith, 1858)
- Austroscolia soror (Smith, 1855)
Check out other blogs by Koh Lin.