Mugshots

Common Carder Bee, Bombus pascuorum.  In my garden in Hayes on 8 May 2013.

I don't just get moths in my garden trap.  In fact I am seeing hardly any moths at the moment.  But this bumblebee did turn up, resting on the egg cartons.

The name "Carder Bee" has a tangled origin.  Carding is the process of pulling raw wool between two spiky paddles to straighten out the fibres ready for spinning.  It's called carding because originally dried teasel heads, which are naturally spiky,  were used for this purpose; and carduus in Latin meant a spiky plant, probably the one we now call a Cardoon.

Anyway, does this bee look cuddly at all?  It's certainly furry.

Wasps definitely do not look cuddly.  I caught this one in my doctor's waiting room.  It was pretty lethargic, but people don't like even lethargic wasps, and it was easy to catch in a specimen tube.  I brought it home and took its picture.

Common Wasp, Vespula vulgaris, caught in the doctor's waiting room in Hayes on 17 May 2013.

Different wasp species have different patterns of black and yellow on their faces and abdomens.  I don't have a selection yet, but they do come to the trap so maybe I will see some more this year.