Great Black Wasp - Sphex pensylvanicus
Stunning black wasp with blue wings. It was about 30 mm long.
These wasps have a cool life cycle. The adults feed on nectar, but provision their underground nests with orthopterans. They capture grasshoppers or katydids and sting them three times to paralyze them. The prey can survive in this paralyzed state for weeks! Once back at the nest, the wasps glue their to the prey. There are several chambers in the nest, each of which contains a single larva, and each larva will eat 2-6 grasshoppers/katydids before pupating!
Interestingly, the adult wasps are very vulnerable to kleptoparasitism by birds who steal the prey insects from the wasps on the way to their nests.
Habitat: Garden
''Sphex pensylvanicus'', the great black wasp, is a species of digger wasp. It lives across most of North America and grows to a size of 20–35 mm. The larvae feed on living insects that the females paralyze and carry to the underground nest.
