Boardwalk Drama

At Arverne East Nature Preserve in Queens, on the Rockaway Peninsula, I ran into a little drama.

This little blue-eyed, red-tipped wasp was has caught a caterpillar nymph. I might have stepped on them both if I wasn’t scanning the concrete/boardwalk here. (The wasp was so intent on her prey that she’d didn’t bulge when someone else walked by.)

The wasp is slightly smaller than her prey, but she ultimately flew off with it, to take it to her nest in the sand somewhere.

This wasp is part of Complex Tachysphex terminatus, made up of several very similar species unlikely to be told apart by eye. They all paralyze caterpillar nymphs as food for their young. This seems to be the first iNaturalist observation of any of the complex members in the city, and even on Long Island with all its shandy shores.