Mellinus arvensis
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
Mellinus arvensis, the field digger wasp, is a species of solitary wasp. The wasp can commonly be found from July to late September or October in sandy places. In hard soil however the female will often try to steal a nest from another member of the same species. The female is larger than the male. The wasps' nests are underground in sandy burrows with flies for their offspring to eat. The species is yellow and black like many wasp species, but they have a more narrow waist. This species is the most dominant immediately following forest fires.
The field digger wasps are solitary hunters, yet live in colonies with one another. Female members of the community will dig out multicellular nests in the sand or soil to lay their eggs, then provision the cells with prey, with the most common one being flies. When the soil is too hard for digging, females will either take over an abandoned nest, or will usurp a nest from another female. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Snowdonia National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 2 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 3 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hamburg | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 2 | Kyiv | 🇺🇦 Ukraine | |
| 3 | Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 4 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 5 | Copenhagen | 🇩🇰 Denmark | |
| 6 | Birmingham | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Field Digger Wasp sighting in Berlin on a given day, based on 27 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 343rd most-seen of the 1065 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July to September
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Field Digger Wasp in Berlin on a given day, against under 5% in October to June, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Field Digger Wasp sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Among the best
Of the 6 cities where we can rate Field Digger Wasp sightings, Berlin ranks 3rd at about 10%, level with the leaders once rounded. The best odds are in Hamburg (Germany, about 10%) and Kyiv (Ukraine, about 10%).
Same family: Crabronidae
The closest relatives of the Field Digger Wasp that you can see in Berlin (family Crabronidae, Square-headed Wasps, Sand Wasps, and Allies) are European Beewolf (about 10%) and Ornate-Tailed Digger Wasp (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Field Digger Wasp is recorded against all the insects logged in Berlin (27 verified sightings), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
