{"id":250,"date":"2016-12-02T02:19:52","date_gmt":"2016-12-02T02:19:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/?p=250"},"modified":"2016-12-02T02:19:52","modified_gmt":"2016-12-02T02:19:52","slug":"life-in-the-leptospermum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/2016\/12\/02\/life-in-the-leptospermum\/","title":{"rendered":"Life in the Leptospermum."},"content":{"rendered":"

Flowering Leptospermums, in common with other members of the Myrtaceae, are very attractive to insects seeking pollen and nectar. We have several native varieties including Leptospermum Rhiannon, a hybrid between L. rotundifolium and L. spectabile, it is spectacular in flower and extremely popular with a range of insects. Wasps of several species have been visiting, firstly, hairy flower wasps.<\/p>\n

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Sand wasps have made an appearance and are alternating between supping nectar and searching for burrow sites.<\/p>\n

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Wasps in the family Gasteruptiidae are solitary bee parasites, and due to their slimness and constant movement can be extremely hard to photograph. The beckoning flowers made the job a little easier with male and female partaking of nectar.<\/p>\n

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An drone fly had been pursued several times without photographic success, but the beautiful flowers proved its undoing.<\/p>\n

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Dozens of fly species are attracted to the flowers, some of which are quite colourful.<\/p>\n

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Beetles too get in on the act, like this mating pair of lycid beetles.<\/p>\n

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Click all pictures to enlarge.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flowering Leptospermums, in common with other members of the Myrtaceae, are very attractive to insects seeking pollen and nectar. We have several native varieties including Leptospermum Rhiannon, a hybrid between L. rotundifolium and L. spectabile, it is spectacular in flower and extremely popular with a range of insects. Wasps of several species have been visiting, … Continue reading Life in the Leptospermum.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}