Katydid Wasp

Here's a Katydid Wasp I met. This wasp is in the same genus as (and is thus a fairly close relative to) the Great Black Digger Wasp I showed yesterday. The orange on the legs guarantee that this is not a Great Black Digger Wasp.

Despite the common name of Katydid Wasp, it sounds like their favorite prey is the Carolina Leaf-roller, a cricket. I'm not saying they wouldn't use katydids, and katydids/grasshoppers/crickets are all related, but the name might be suboptimal.

Some documentation suggests this is (or was) a more southern species, though I don't think they're uncommon around here.

I think they've got very similar lifestyles to the Great Black Digger Wasp. After breeding, the female will go looking for probably anything small enough in the orthoptera order (basically those grasshoppers/crickets/katydids mentioned earlier), paralyzes it with its stinger, carries the paralyzed insect to a nest, and lays an egg on it. She repeats this process for each egg she lays, so a single female could eliminate a fairly large amount of orthoptera insects.

When the egg hatches, it eats the still-paralyzed insect left by its mom. By the time it has finished eating, it's ready to leave its larval lifestyle behind and begins life as an adult wasp. This life mostly consists of eating/drinking pollen/nectar and breeding. In the case of females, there's the activity discussed above to acquire food for your eggs.

August 10, 2019 at Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge


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