northeast-flora-and-fauna

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...