The Foundress

Some of you who know me well know that I have a keen interest in insect "reproduction"  - or in other words, bug porn.  Yes, I'm afraid it's true.  And I have quite a lot of company in this regard, not to name any names of course.  

Today, however, is the first time I have ever seen any of the social wasps engaged in the solidago-mambo.  I've seen solitary wasps thus engaged, and it is a long, drawn out affair - sometimes lasting hours.  Not so with these paper wasps - no sirree.  This act was accomplished in under a minute.  The first time I observed it today, I thought it was a territorial dispute of some sort.  But when I trained my camera on a female I was able to catch this action.  Definitely not a dispute, but also not exactly a tender moment either.  I'll put one more shot in Extra of the very awkward dismount, witnessed by a small bumble bee who was utterly shocked and appalled.

She is the Foundress which means she will hibernate over the winter and start the new colony all by herself next spring.  The eggs in her first brood will all be female workers and they will expand the nest and tend to young while the Foundress produces another set of young including fertile females and males.  Eventually the original Foundress dies and some of the fertile females carry on, as seen here.  The male pictured here is nearing the end of his natural life -  happily from the looks of it.

Hubs and I went to a dog adoption event today - it was packed and there were very long lines to get into the part of the park where they had some of the dogs, so we skipped it and just enjoyed wandering around and looking at all the displays. It was a dog-friendly event so lots of people brought their own dogs which was fun.  As we were leaving, I saw a family with a small black puppy so I had to ask if they'd adopted him and if he was part of the "pasta litter".  Yes, he was!  And as cute as a button.  The pasta litter are 9 lab/shepard/etc puppies who've all been given pasta names and are collectively called the Pasta Puppies,  Most black, a couple tan and one mixed.  They are our second choice if the coonhound doesn't work out.  So, it was serendipitous to get to meet one of the puppies and talk to his very excited new family.  

Some time in the garden doing this and that.  Then my SIL dropped by so I spent some time chatting with her.  And before you know it, it will be happy hour.  I'm going to see how Hubs feels about a martini tonight.  

Today's dark was peppered with sea salt and almonds.

xo
Debbi