|
Post by trehopr1 on Jun 23, 2018 17:25:38 GMT
This large species of wasp is native to Eastern North America and is a specialist in hunting down cicadas to provide a rich food source for it's young. The paralyzed cicada's are grappled by the females and flown to an underground burrow where she then lays one egg on each cicada. Each burrow houses several cicadas. There are presently 5 described species of Cicada Killing Wasps in the America's. This large female is nearly 3 inches long from head to abdomen tip. I found her and several others arriving or departing from their burrows in an open field which I was collecting butterflies in. One could not miss the drone of their wings in flight ! Normally, I don't bother much with Hymenoptera in general as I have leps to collect and enough other side interests in a few other select insect families. However, I just could not pass up such an opportunity to get a few as normally one might only see 1 or 2 in a summer. I have to say though these creature are quite the challenge to spread this nicely. My specimen stands on it's 6 legs and it's wings were propped up using 5 glass strips to make them level and a 6th one on top to weight down the wings !
|
|
|
Post by Paul K on Jun 23, 2018 17:45:05 GMT
What an art in preparation, all perfectly symmetric. Stunning wasp too. I should maybe look at them while in Canada.
Paul
|
|