Six-spotted Wasp-cuckoo (Nysson trimaculatus)

In quite close attendance to the Sand wasp, the Two-banded Hopper Wolf (Lestiphorus bicinctus) I featured in a post yesterday, I found this equally nationally scarce kleptoparasitic Digger wasp, 'Nysson trimaculatus' which, wouldn't you know, uses the former as its host species in the south of England.

In the absence of L. bicinctus in the north, N trimaculatus is a cleptoparasite of the sand wasp Gorytes quadrifasciatus.

Other than knowing it's diurnal and flies from early June to early September in habitats which closely mirror that of its hosts, little else is known about its ecology.