Country diary: solitary wasp's embrace means the end of the road

Sandy, Bedfordshire The fly's head tipped back a little, eyes the colour of a tired strawberry, its legs frozen, as if in ecstasy

Sitting down at the wheel of the car I found my view through the windscreen partially obscured by two large insects having sex. At least, this was how things looked from the driver's seat. A solitary wasp had mounted its mate and wrapped its forelegs fondly around its neck. It had managed to anchor the both of them to the sloping glass with its rear feet.

This wasp was an angular Audrey Hepburn of insects, narrow-waisted with a pencil-point slender abdomen and an impeccable dress sense of yellow and black hoops and bars. It had pulled big time, for its "partner" was a whopper of a catch - a giant house fly, its coarse-haired, scabby, bulbous, abdomen flattened against the screen.