Sphex

For the budding naturalists I met in the park while photographing these wasps, which of course I couldn’t remember the name of. There were about half a dozen on this milkweed, more than I’ve ever seen at once. This is the Great Black Wasp (Sphex pensylvanicus). The adults, like many of the big wasps, are gentle vegetarians, gathering nectar for themselves, while they hunt grasshopper and katydids for their young. And speaking of katydids, last night they were giving They Might Be Giants a run for the money in Prospect Park with their music.In the first photo, you can see where some of the little pollen packets, the pollinia, of the milkweed has attached itself to the wasp’s front leg.