The order Hymenoptera contains a wide range of insects with complex ecology and life cycles. There are many species on the Lowes and here is a small selection.
Heath bumblebee
This Bumblebee is not common in Norfolk and as its name suggests is found on Heaths. It particularly favours Bell heather as a nectar source. The nest is underground in sandy soil.
Ruby-tailed Wasp –Hedychrum niemelai
Ruby-tailed wasps are spectacular small insects. They are parasitic on digger wasps, the female creeping into a wasp burrow when the female is absent. They eggs hatch into larvae which pasasitize the digger wasp larvae
Cerceris arenaria – A digger wasp
This is quite a common wasp on the Lowes. You will notice the burrows it makes in the sandy soil, especially on the tracks. The females do this and they catch weevils to provision the burrows for their larva which will hatch out from the eggs the females lay. All these burrowing insects need to recognise their burrow. they may move small stones as markers and they always fly over the burrow fixing in their ‘brains’ the physical clues to their burrow entrance.
Red-banded Sand Wasp (Ammophila sabulosa). Another digger of burrows., which are provisioned for the developing larvae with moth larvae.
Anoplius vitacus – A Spider-Hunting wasp
This species provisions its burrows with spiders- which there are plent of on the Lowes. Clearly they have to be careful of webs!