Country diary: A riot of colour and cannibalism | Mark Cocker

Longstone Edge, Derbyshire: The cuckoo wasp I'm watching has a strangely bookish quality as it moves, but it only has murder on its mindHer appearance was so unexpectedly brilliant that when I spotted a 1cm squirt of colour land on the ground an arm's length away, she seemed more like a momentary flicker of flame. Then she went out and I was in agonies to relocate her.Even on that briefest view, she was easily among the brightest insects I've seen. I also got some of the improbable range: the shimmering emerald, the rich purple thorax, glittering magenta on her abdomen and, at the rear, a cone of deepest, darkest blue. When she finally returned and I could examine her at leisure, I realised that the thorax had the same unlikely tone as ripened lychees, even to the exact dimpled quality of the fruit's surface. Continue reading...