A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Sphex ichneumoneus
Female with a meal for its larvae. The adult wasps eat nectar but they catch grasshoppers, paralyze them and then lay eggs in them so that the larvae have a meal when they emerge. The grasshopper was much larger than the wasp but she was buzzing around a bush with it, trying to avoid my photographic efforts.
Jordan Lake woods
Spotted on Sep 6, 2014
Submitted on Sep 8, 2014
2 Comments
Thanks, Mark. It does, doesn't it? It is a bit gruesome but that is how nature works in this case and it is interesting. I felt sorry for the grasshopper and amazed at the wasp's strength.
Spectacular. That prey looks totally resigned to it's fate.