When it rained yesterday afternoon, my duck crawled into a hole under the road to seek shelter by the covered drain. There, where the earth is dry and crumbly, I found a companion in this rather large (nearly 2 inch) wasp. She arrived with her day's takings, a small, green katydid. She buzzed and busied herself on the slope, inspecting various holes before leaving her paralysed quarry as a maternal gift to her grubby brood. [update: vespa bicolor places this wasp in the genus Sphex of the solitary hunting digger wasp family Sphecidae]
Nearby, another colony of wasps were gathered at their nest, which had fallen to the ground. Needless to say, I kept my duck well-covered while shooting the insects. My duck's a swell thing, but getting stung and swollen wouldn't be nice at all! [update: these are possibly Provespa sp., close relatives of the hornets but thought to be a more primitive group]
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