Eighteen new Dutch insect species

This video says about itself:

Sep 6, 2010

This was flying around in our bathroom.

I did finally find out what it is. It’s one of the good guys. 🙂 Its called a hatchet wasp and its larvae are parasites to coackroaches.

It doesn’t appear to have a stinger from what I’ve read and poses no threat to humans. Since its larvae eat roaches it’s a beneficial insect. 🙂

Almost 20,000 insect species live in the Netherlands.

Dutch biology journal Nederlandse Faunistische Mededelingen reports that recently, eighteen insect species, new for the Netherlands, have been discovered.

Six of these new species are hatchet wasps. Dutch species are said to be parasites on bees. They are often near insect hotels where solitary bees live. According to recent research, nine hatchet wasp species live in the Netherlands, six of them new for the country.

Eight gall wasp species, new for the Netherlands, were discovered recently.

Recently, the beetle species Sulcacis bidentulus was seen for the first time in the Netherlands.

One crane fly species was new as well.

Also one bee fly species, Exoprosopa cleomene, was among the new discoveries.

Finally, in 2012, a caddisfly species was seen near the Geul river in Limburg province. It was new for the Netherlands as well.

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