Black grasshopper hunter wasp

Description:

A medium size black wasp. also known as Prionyx wasp.

Habitat:

Spotted nectaring on rubber rabbitbush in the Umtanum creek canyon. Black prionyx wasps range throughout the United States and southern Canada, inhabiting open areas where grasshoppers live and the digging is easy.

Notes:

Adult wasps feed on nectar from flowers that bloom from spring, through the summer and into the fall including fruit trees, buckwheats, white forget-me-not, Douglas' dustymaiden, and rabbitbrush.