Wasps

It is the season of wasps. Seen on a walk through Prospect Park this week:The very elegant Isodontia elegans, one of the grass-carrying wasps, and evidently a species without a common name. The grass they clip and carry is used to line their nests, which are made in pre-existing cavities. They eat pollen themselves and hunt for grasshoppers for their young. Yesterday’s post had a picture of an all-black Isodontia. This is a completely new genus to me, but then, the near-infinite world of insects continuously surprises.Four-toothed Mason Wasp, Monobia quadridens. (I salute the first tooth-counter.) These wasps nest in pre-existing cavities, sometimes the abandoned nests of mud-daubers, and plaster-seal the cavities with fresh mud. They eat pollen and provision their young with caterpillars. Very similar to Euodynerus bidens.You can’t see them in this image, but the giant Cicada killer wasps were all over this slope by the Maryland Memorial, as they were in a corner of the Nethermead, where a pair were mating (and two of these big wasps merged together makes them look even more frightful). I’ve seen them here for several years now. This looks like a big year for these wasps.