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 |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Field Digger Wasp sighting in Manchester on a given day, based on 6 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 387th most-seen of the 458 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.
August to October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Field Digger Wasp in Manchester on a given day, against under 5% in November to July, 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.
4th of 6
Of the 6 cities where we can rate Field Digger Wasp sightings, Manchester ranks 4th at under 5%. The best odds are in Hamburg (Germany, about 10%), Kyiv (Ukraine, about 10%) and Berlin (Germany, about 10%).
Same order: Hymenoptera
The closest relatives of the Field Digger Wasp that you can see in Manchester (order Hymenoptera, Ants, Bees, Wasps, and Sawflies) are Common Carder Bumble Bee (about 30%), Red-Tailed Bumble Bee (about 30%) and Buff-Tailed Bumble Bee (about 30%), 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 Manchester (6 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.
