2nd Sept 2012 – Wasp Nest

While walking over the trestle of the KVR railway the spans the Trout Creek Canyon, I found a small colony of wasps who had started to build a nest.  There were about 6 or 7 wasps in total and the nest was being built within the curve of the rail.

From this photo, you will notice the blurred wings of a couple of the wasps, and in particular the main wasp.  They look like the rotors of a helicopter, the ends of which have caught the sunlight.  I was intrigued as to what this behaviour was and, according to Insect Science (Behaviours, No. 11), it is a clear signal of defensiveness and may also be a way of dispensing the alarm pheromone.

These wasps were, therefore, very aware of my presence, but they were more interested in getting the nest built and not bother me while taking their photograph.

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02 Sep This entry was published on September 2, 2012 at 8:06 pm. It’s filed under Photos and tagged Canon, insects, Kate Hobbs, Kettle Valley Railway, My 2012 Photo Challenge, Nest, Pheromone, Photo Challenge, Photograph, Photography, PostADay, Summerland, Wasp. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.