northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's one of our thread-waisted wasps that lacks a common name, a  Podium luctuosum . As an insect without a common name, it's not a wasp we encounter so often that anyone's come up with such a name. (Should we come up with a name? Maybe the Dark Cockroach Killer Wasp?) Like a surprising number of wasps, they are parasitoids . The moms will paralyze certain cockroaches, lay eggs on them, and squirrel them away under tree bark or in tree cavities that she'll also cover with mud. The larva feed off the cockroach, ultimately killing it. (I don't think they use cockroaches you might find hiding under the refrigerator as hosts, in case you were thinking of befriending these wasps.) Given where the wasp was found, I'm suspicious of a female looking for soil to "mud over" the nest she made for her egg and its host. My 2nd guess is that maybe this is the right habitat for finding the cockroaches she'll need for her eggs. July 28, 2021 at Sourland Mountai...

Here's a Great Black Digger Wasp I met. I don't see a lot of these guys, though they're apparently widespread and can be found across most of the contiguous US states. They're relatively large, and mostly black though with iridescent blue on the wings. The females can sting, though this is primarily used on other insects. They are one of a genus of wasps that start life eating paralyzed insects like katydids that their mom left for them. After growing into an adult, they leave this cuisine and live off of pollen and nectar for the rest of their lives. They are probably helpful to gardeners in that they not only eliminate some plant-eating insects but also function as pollinators. They are in the thread-waisted wasp family. August 18, 2020 at Duke Farms