wasps
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Sceliphron caementarium
What the well-dressed mud-daubing wasp is wearing: black and yellow.The Black and Yellow Mud Dauber builds a mud nest. Trypoxylon politum, the Pipe Organ Mud Dauber, is almost all black and builds pipe organ-like nests.Here’s another gathering mud. Her left antenna is broken off. She does not seem to get much mud per trip. This…
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Cicada Killer
Every August you’re practically guaranteed to see poor soul someone jump and shout in terror when they see a Cicada Killer Wasp. Sphecius speciosus are big; over an inch, and tend to fly low when they’re not scouting out trees for cicadas to capture.You need a big wasp to take home a big bug. It’s…
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The King is Dead
A freshly dispatched Monarch (Danaus plexippus).Cause of death unknown. But the head was missing.While we were surveying the corpse, a European Paper Wasp (Polistes dominula) showed up to browse in the facial cavity. These wasps chew up insect bits to feed their young. The mostly orange antenna of P. dominula are a good identification short…
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Vespa Crabro
The last two summers, I saw solitary examples of a very large, yellow-abdomened wasp in Green-Wood. They moved constantly, never staying still long enough to be photographed. Last summer I identified them as European Hornets, Vespa Crabro; the species has been in North American since at least 1840.This summer, I finally found one hanging around.…
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Great Golden Digger
Busy as a wasp. A Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus).She builds a nearly vertical burrow with cells off of a central tunnel, each stockpiled with paralyzed grasshoppers and katydids for her young.
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Cocktail Hour
Is this too much John Cheever-John Updike, drunken wasps getting it on? Above are Thread-waisted Wasps (Eremnophila aureonotata) mating on that pollinator-magnet mountain mint (Pycnanthemum). Like many wasps, the adults eat nectar, but feed their larvae flesh. (OK, now we’ve entered Stephen King territory) These provision their young with caterpillars. Blue-winged, a.k.a. Digger Wasp (Scolia…
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Air Bee and Bee
A local bee motel. There was a wasp checking in, to. This is a rather elaborate one, offering several possibilities for wood- and cavity- nesters. (But don’t forget the ground-nesters!) The Xerces Society has some helpful hints on building your own to encourage pollinators. Update and caveats 11/19: these elaborate, crowded situations don’t replicate natural…
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European Paper Wasp
Polistes dominula, gathering some boardwalk wood.
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Diggers
Digger wasps (Scolia dubia) hide their lights under their dark blue-black wings. “Blue-winged Wasp” is another common name for them.A bunch of these were looping over a strip of dirt on the edge of First Avenue at 41st, rather industrial ground for natural history, except for the feral cats and Paulownia and Ailanthus trees. But…
Backyard and Beyond 