A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Sphex cognatus
Glossy blue/black wasp, large around 40mm. This wasp flew in to land purposely on the flowering grass heads. It quickly started to chew at the base of one of the grass heads, moving with intent it finally broke the piece off the main plant and flew away with it. Not sure on species ID of insect and would welcome suggestions as I continue to look.
Found in dry woodland environment in north east NSW near dam with fresh grasses growing well and flowering.
Spotted on Mar 2, 2014
Submitted on May 25, 2014
9 Comments
I'll check on paspalum plant and ID and let you know! The grasses are amazingly beautiful at this stage!
That's an interesting thought Vinny. I had never thought of native paspalums. So there are 5 !! Thanks.
Any idea if it's a native paspalam sp. ?
Thanks so much for your input John, am pretty sure it is of that family. If I enlarge some of the images you can see the golden hairs. I'll list it as that. Great work, thank you.
Yes Vinny it's a paspalam, attractive in its own right! Still not sure what is was doing with it though.
Based on the long petiole (that narrow bit between the thorax and the abdomen) I would say this is a Sphecidae.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphecidae
Not suggesting that it is the same species, but looks similar to this
http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_...
The grass looks like a paspalam sp.
Thanks Mark & Vinny for your thoughts on this. It was very quick to fly in & shocked me as I was taking photos of birds as the wasp dropped in next to me. It was very agitated and intent on getting this piece of grass which was at least twice its length. It carried it in a grasp using all the legs & flew off about1 metre from the ground metres away until I could see it no longer so it was not a short distance. As I walked away after 10 minutes or so I saw it come back & repeat the same action. I suspected it may be used for nest lining, possibly food source underground as well...? Or was this grass emitting an attractant? I am not not sure.
It looks like Auplopus sp. (Pompilidae) maybe... don't know about the grass activity though. Let's hope John La Salle can see it.
Interesting observation, any guess on what the wasp would use a grass flower spike for?