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Project Noah Nature School
Turneromyia sp.
A 20 mm black wasp with striking thin white markings on thorax and abdomen. Head and legs showed diffuse white patches. Legs showed short spikes and appeared unusually long and were held spread out around the body like a spider.
Spotted amongst wood chip mulch bordering a walking track in a conservation area.
A busy wasp with short jerky movements. It seemed to be searching for something amongst the wood chips and finally found a spot under a fallen branch and began to furiously work on the slightly compacted dirt. It's abdomen appeared to be hammering away looking like a blur of black and white lines. After a few minutes it dragged out a small stone depositing it far from the target spot. This process was repeated several times. I watched for about 15 mins until the wasp disappeared for a short while into the grass. I did see it return to the spot but I had to leave it there....
Spider wasps ( Family Pompilidae) are solitary wasps which are often seen digging into soft soil with spikes on their front legs. These are burrows into which they will eventually stuff their prey which would be a spider. They parasitise the prey and lay their eggs on the prey. the larvae develop feeding on the readily available food in the closed off burrow.
Here's interesting information about this family:
http://australianmuseum.net.au/spider-wa...
Spotted on Jan 5, 2016
Submitted on Jan 6, 2016
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