Species Account for Ectemnius ruficornis

Species text
This wasp has a patchy distribution in Britain as far north as Westmorland, and appears to have markedly increased its presence in northern England over the last few decades (Edwards 1998). It is typically encountered in the vicinity of dead wood or on umbellifer flowers. Nesting occurs in a variety of dead wood and the nest cells are provisioned with large syrphid (hoverfly) flies (Falk 1991). Although relatively widespread in parts of the south-east the first record for Essex is of a single male collected by P.R. Harvey at silt lagoons at Shellhaven on 25th July 2001. There are no previous records from Essex (Harvey & Plant 1996) and these lagoons are now almost certainly destroyed. References

Habitats

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