A Sand-loving Wasp

Sand-loving Wasp (Tachytes)

Who knew there were sand-loving wasps? I didn't until this week when John Ascher and Spencer Hardy both said, at iNaturalist, that it was. I certainly have a lot to learn about wasps. I've spent the last few years focusing on native bees. 

These small wasps don't seem to be a danger to people; but they are to grasshoppers, crickets and katydids. They paralyze those insects, carry them back to an underground tunnel with several cells branching off of it, put about thirteen paralyzed insects in each cell (I have no idea why thirteen), lay an egg at the end of the cell and seal it off. The larvae consume the insects, which, I hope, are dead by that time. The adults sip nectar. 

These wasps are also called green-eyed wasps or square-headed wasps. The eyes and head are the predominant field markings, as are the translucent wings. Next season I will be paying attention to those details. These wasps are frequently mistaken for bees (which I did). They are more sturdily built than most other wasps, which also contributes to misidentification. 

The one reason I thought this was a bee were the eyes. They looked yellow to me, but I had never seen yellow bee eyes. I also have not seen every species of bee that lives here, so I decided this was a bee that was new to me. Little did I know that there are wasps with green eyes. Proper lighting would have shown them to be green. If you double-click on these photos and view in the lightbox, you can see the eyes better. This individual may be a female because the eyes are small.

There are thirty-five known species in this genus in North America. Identification down to species is done by genital dissection. So this is as far as the identification of this little wasp goes.

If you want to know more about these pretty wasps, see Eric Eaton's article here.  Please be sure to double-click his photos to see those eyes!

Saturday's Critters at
Viewing Nature with Eileen

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It's Wasp Season

European Paper Wasp (Polistes dominula) ♂

European Paper Wasp (Polistes dominula) ♂

European Paper Wasp (Polistes dominula) ♂

So why have I posted three different individuals of the same species?

1. They are beautiful.
2. They look like yellowjackets, but they aren't.
3. They are the only wasp in North America that has orange antennae.
4. Their eyes! Please click on the photos to see them full size and see those eyes.
5. They feed caterpillars to their babies .
6. Adults sip nectar.
7. They are all male! We can't figure out why. Male wasps curve their antennae. The last wasp antennae may look straight, but he was feeling his way through the ground litter and straightened them for a second when I shot it. We could not find a female wasp! I suspect it has something to do with the season. 

These photos were from last Sunday at Jody's gardens. Jody has discovered a love of wasps and she doesn't even know why! We had three missions on that day: find bees, either social or solitary; find syrphid (flower) flies; and find as many species of yellowjackets as possible. We found 3 species of bees (one bumble, one digger, and one small carpenter), one odd individual syrphid, only one species of yellowjacket, and like a million wasps.

This is wasp season. They are, literally, starving because their food sources are almost gone so they are aggressively looking for any last bits of food they can find.

If you want to learn more about wasps, I suggest Eric Eaton's blog, Bug Eric. He won't remember, but he has helped me many times with identifications and by answering questions. He is curator of the Facebook group Wasp Friends, and has just published another book, Wasps: The Astonishing Diversity of a Misunderstood Insect. His book, Insectpedia: A Brief Compendium of Insect Lore, is lots of fun.

Wasp Wednesday: European Paper Wasp

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Saturday's Critters at
Viewing Nature with Eileen

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