Black and Yellow

So they say that animals have bright colours (or maybe just insects?) to warn others of their danger, or pretend that they are dangerous anyway. Everybody knows that the black and yellow of the wasp and bumblebee works to warn people of their sing, and hoverflies use these colours to confuse would-be predators. A predator is not going to et something that could potentially give it a nasty sting. However, mummy thought it would be good to show people that wasps do not usually sting uneccesarily, and as long as you don't flap at them they can be quite intreguing to watch going about their business. Now this video isn't liked by everybody, but it is interesting (although GavGav got bored lol), especially with Gav's dads commentary hehe. If only I could have been there, but they had the new puppy with them instead :(

So here is the little video:

Something else that shows you not to eat it through its colours is the large white caterpillar. These are black and yellow also, but they have a bit of white on there too. They also spit out a horrible green slime if they do get picked up, and it seems the only thing that will try to eat them is the wasps lol. Mummy has some lovely specimens on her Nasturtiums at the moment (although I think there must be a few wasps about too as there are not as many as there usually would be).

It is funny because this year there are more small white caterpillars, possibly due to the reduced numbers of the large white, meaning more food. These small white caterpillars use camoflage to stop things from eating them and they blend in really well against the nasturtiums, usually up against a stem of leaf vein. Unfortunately there are no decent photos of a small white caterpillar.

Right off to be as Gav Gav is coming in!