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Discolia soror
Black body approx 20 - 30mm long with iridescent blue wings. legs are covered in small bristles The adult females are large and powerful wasps and are designed to dig. They burrow into the soil to locate scarab grubs (from beetles such as the Christmas beetle), which they sting and lay an egg on. When the larva emerges, it feeds on the still living scarab grub, which provides a fresh food source until the wasp larva finishes its development.
normally a solitary however in mid summer they will form small swarms. that when i first came across them. for nearlly two months they were flying all over the gardens outside my work. And as the sun would start going down all the swallows would come out and feed. they would fly really close to the bushes to knock the wasps off and chase after them. It was great to watch however couldnt get any good shots of that
1 Comment
Beautifully colored!