WiseAcre Gardens

north of the adirondacks – wildflowers & perennials that survive winters colder than my wife's feet

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Solidago and Sphex

Posted by WiseAcre on Nov 30th, 2008

2008

Nov 30

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AKA Goldenrod and Katydid Hunter

Sphex pensylvanicus – Great Black Wasp

These are solitary wasps and are not aggressive like social wasps and usually do not sting. In fact this one seemed shy and did it’s best to avoid me. The adults feed on pollen and nectar. But their method of nesting and feeding their young are the stuff of science fiction horror movies and nightmares.

Females burrow in the ground or use and existing hole to nest and lay their eggs. So far so good, nothing really scary about that. But what comes next is – if you let your imagination get carried away. Great Black Wasps hunt crickets and their sting will immobilize but not kill their prey. They drag the captured katydids into the burrow and lay a single egg on each. When the eggs hatch the larvae have a nice live juicy meal.

I sometimes called my kids ‘life sucking parasites’ but I never considered putting them up for adoption like a Great Black Wasp mother. I guess human children inject something that instills love in their hosts.

Image is linked to a larger size (1024 x 768) so you can get a closer view and have more detailed dreams. For daydreaming use it as desktop background.

5 Responses

Grammy Says:
November 30th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
Wonderful post. you are so creative with words. When we first moved here We saw what looked like and alien wasp. But later found it was caring caterpillars. Wish I had this camera them. I was never happy with my digital photos till I bit the bullet and bought what I have been wanting for years. All my lenses from my slr fit on my new dslr. So I am now as my kids call me camera happy.
Have a great weekend.
Grammy

Grammy,
I guess I’m not too bad with words as long as I limit them to one-liners.

I didn’t go for a dslr but did pick what I considered the best ‘point and shoot’ available at the time. I’m ‘camera happy’ enough without learning how to really use a camera I have a Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ28, 10 MP with an 18 X Leica zoom lens. I love the zoom but holding steady enough to get a decent shot is a real challenge. And I’m just a little disappointed with the macro mode – I think my old Sony Cybershot DSC-S85, 4.1 MP with the Carl Zeiss lens did a better job.
RattyRatty Says:
November 30th, 2008 at 5:59 pm
I always love your closeups of different bugs. I haven’t quite figured out how to do it with my camera yet. Maybe it can’t, I’m not sure yet.

The disgusting little details of a bug’s life are always interesting. The image of what they do with their eggs would make a great horror movie.

Ratty,
I forgot what camera you are using but I’m pretty sure you should have a Macro Mode for closeups. Time to check out the instructions

Yea, I hate the idea of being eaten alive. Kind of reminds me of ‘Alien”.
Jan@ThanksFor2Day Says:
November 30th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Your photography is fantastic. The wasp is so clear. I am still learning how to use my camera to it’s fulllest capacity. So far, I still haven’t read the directions that came with it, and I’ve had it for 9 months!! I like your 1-liners, too! Jan

Jan,
I recommend to all they stop by and check out your photos. And poetry lovers will appreciate the blog too. Expect to find me lurking about often. I’m not a poetry kind of guy but I am a photo phreak.
peppylady Says:
November 30th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
Get out the fly swatter!!!

I tried to get golden rod to grow no luck. We had some in a gully and I tried to transplant it.
Actual I would like to make flower bed of different state flowers from my family past. My mom from Nebraska and the golden rod if there state flower.

Coffee is on.

peppylady,
I’ve found it easy to transplant. You just need to dig down deep and far enough around the clump to get a good root ball so the plants don’t even realize they’ve been moved. Get some muscle bound helper to pop the clump out and move it for you. Too bad Goldenrod has such a undeserved bad reputation. I can’t recall any nursery selling any but someone must.
Grammy Says:
December 1st, 2008 at 11:44 am
Hay thank for letting me know ,I will be asleep for the month of Dec.. LOL
I need to find some winter motivation. to keep me awake.
Your Panasonic Lumix takes great pictures,
I have a Nikon Cool Pix. 5mp and could not stand the delay. I always missed the best shots. My slr’s are a Minolta and cannon.When comparing photo quality I prefer Minolta. So When the $600 tax rebate came I bought this Sony a200 12mp. It is point and shoot or advanced. I love putting it on action and taking my road trip pictures at 50-70 mph. I am not the driver.
The auto focus can get a bit picky on the slr. I had to focus on a car bumper to get the mountain shot in Arizona.
All my lenses from the Minolta fit on the new camera. Because Sony bought Minolta.

Grammy,
I hear you about shutter delay. Using the old Sony the subject could travel out of state before it ‘clicked’. The Panasonic is lightning fast compared to it. I’ve gotten a mini tripod to help when using the zoom lens – The auto stabilizer isn’t enough in an ‘old’ mans hands.

Getting ‘camera happy’ is keeping me motivated. I can’t wait to get out and see what I can find hiking around. The only problem is that I’m now obsessed with the blog. I need to redesign and update my web site (original winter hobby) but I can’t sit long enough to get back into it now.