There are a lot of flies in the desert

17/2/2016

That was the scientific finding of our grand wasp hunt. There really are a lot of flies in the desert! Last week, Mustard and I set off to the north-eastern corner of South Australia to find a rare wasp. The 4WD was rearing to go, the weather was as perfect as you can expect from the middle of Australia in Summer (ie. hot, dry and hot) and we were filled with optimism as we set off from Adelaide and headed north.

We were headed north of Maree, near Lake Eyre and the Strzelecki Regional Reserve. The furthest north we drove was to Innamincka, not far from the NT/QLD borders.

There was a lot of driving along dusty dirt roads, across flat dry desert country. We saw lots of cows, emus and a dingo!

In the evenings we set up our light trap to attract the nocturnal wasps. No one really knows why insects that fly at night are attracted to light, but it definitely works! Our light trap consisted of big white sheets tied to the 4WD, and a really bright light strung up in front of it.

There were HEAPS of insects that came to the light after the sun set. Lots of different types of moths, a lacewing from the family Ascalaphidae, a rather large mantid, and some pretty cool beetles. Unfortunately, despite having many different insects pay us a visit, there was not a single one of the wasps we were after. What this means, we can't really say. They were last collected there 25 years ago during the same time of the year. Perhaps with different weather conditions, they are flying at a slightly different time this year? Perhaps it's just been a bad season for them? Perhaps they have gone extinct in the last 25 years due to a changing environment or climate, or unknown pressures on them, their hosts, or their host food plant? It's impossible to prove any theory as to why we didn't find the wasps during our field trip.

The plan is to head back next year and have another go - who knows, maybe there will be hundreds then!