say hello to Bembix lupiae

Author Gary Taylor ◦

Here’s a new one for me, pardon the crap pics but they were all I could get… He/she (dunno but for the sake of the story I’ll say “she”) was flighty as… I’m out in the bush in Midwest WA by a Eucalyptus platypus, Hymenoptera Heaven, the tree is loaded with everything from the huge Tarantula hawk wasps down to tiny Chalcids and even Velvet ants. Most aren’t usually particularly bothered by my presence, but this new one saw my hat tilt from a metre away as I noticed her coming in to feed and straight away she took off again… 😄 Oh fair go, I’m nowhere near you, and I barely moved!

Anyway, it went on like that for awhile, couldn’t get near her… At one point I even lifted my arm and checked I didn’t smell like a wild wasp eating human 😅 Nope, Imperial Leather… Ahhh, so perhaps that would suggest she’s an anarchist, fighting antidisestablishmentarianism, no clay castle for her… Leads me to think she’s a lowly (tho’ rather exquisite) sand wasp, Bembix sp.

Ok, that last bit was crap… 😆 I mean it’s true but it’s crap, it’s the eyes, legs and body shape that make me think Bembix (baumanni is similar but no cigar…), but seriously, how often do you get to use the word antidisestablishmentarianism twice in one post? 😂

Photographs Midwest WA © Gary Taylor

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Annette Friz Fraser-Dunn
Imperial Leather? You’re not a Brut man? 🤣🤣🤣

Gary Taylor
Annette, come on now, look at my profile pic… 😄 Sure at first glance, bloke with a beard and a dingo on a cliff top in thongs and shorts having a beer has a certain “veni, vidi, vici…” feel but look closer… Those are Heatwave thongs I’m wearing, not your average bogan double pluggers, and the beer bottle isn’t brown, it’s green, Boags (ironically 😆) if I remember rightly… I mean don’t get me wrong, I love leaving a bit of rubber on the road as much as any other hillbilly redneck does, but I’m actually more of a Shae Butter sort of bloke… 😅 Pleasant but unobtrusive… I dead set only changed to Imperial Leather to get into a sex club… JOKING! (sorry, couldn’t help myself 😆), I dead set honestly changed ‘cos they changed the packaging… “Country Life soap, Shae Butter” is gone. Now it’s “Shae Butter Beauty Bar”… 😂 Yeah, nah, I mean c’mon, I’ve had 55 years of baking in the harsh Aussie outback, if I go up to the counter with a “Beauty Bar” I’m gonna get laughed at… “Bit late I reckon mate!…”, “Mate that’s not gonna buff out, Beauty Bar or not…”, “Gift for your daughter is it?” 🤣

Ken Walker
Looks like another new “taylori” in the making. It is close to this species but slightly different. Great find despite the deodorant: See Bembix aureofasciata Turner, 1910

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say hello to Bembix lupiae > it has two tear drop markings on it’s back…

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Check out more blogs and contribution by Gary Taylor.

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