It’s striped black and yellow,
Just like a wasp.
It’s the same size and shape,
Just like a wasp.
It buzzes, it pauses,
Just like a wasp.
But when I look closely,
Not quite a wasp…
Those stripes on the thorax:
Not like a wasp?
Those wings, that rounded tail,
Is it a wasp?
Is it some unusual
Rare kind of wasp?
Some creature pretending
To be a wasp?
Or in cunning disguise,
Dressed like a wasp?
When is a wasp not a wasp?
When it’s a… Sun Fly!
I spotted several of these Sun Flies near our pond and to start with I thought they were regular wasps. Then I realised they weren’t quite the same, so I turned to my books and the iNaturalist ‘Seek’ app to identify them. Apparently they’re classified as a species of hoverfly - but that’s not so helpful either, because they don’t actually seem to hover. Instead they buzz around, just like a wasp!