One of Europe's most spectacular insects, the beewolf, with its acute olfactory skills, has became an obsession for photographer Milan Radisics. Richard Jones talks to him about its unique ecology.Astrikingly marked wasp weaves its way through the sparse vegetation and lands on a bare patch of sandy soil. It half walks,half flits over the earth, weighed down by a burden nearly as big as itself. The European beewolf has returned to stock its nest with prey and, as its name suggests, bees feature strongly on the menu.Like most wasps, adult beewolves are flower visitors, taking sugar-rich nectar astheir prime energy source, but back in the burrow their maggots need an all-protein diet to grow and develop. Many wasp species are generalist predators, taking flies, aphids, caterpillars or whatever else they can find back to their brood. But the beewolf, Philanthus triangulum, is unusual in that it preys almost exclusively on honeybees.These the beewolves find, or at least firmly identify, by smell. Honeybees produce a highly aromatic long-chain alcohol called eicosanol, mostly used as an alarm signal in the nest, and beewolves areattracted to this chemical. Before it attacks, a beewolf hovers downwind of its target, analysing the odours given off by its prey.The strike is sudden and vicious. Philanthus is powerfully built and quickly grapples a bee to the ground, grasping it in its long curved jaws and strong legs, and stinging it deftly through the soft membranes behind the front legs on the underside of its victim's body. Paralysis sets in within seconds, though sometimes a second sting is needed to deliver enough venom to properly subdue the bee.
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