pacific digger wasp or beewolf

Description:

Observed using their oversized head to "bulldoze" pollen in a shasta daisy, giving them the pollen crusted face. Adults eat pollen, but hunt bees as food for their young. From wiki on beewolves: Beewolves (genus Philanthus), also known as bee-hunters, are solitary, predatory wasps, most of which prey on bees, hence their common name. The adult females dig tunnels in the ground for nesting, while the territorial males mark twigs and other objects with pheromones to claim the territory from competing males. As with all other sphecoid wasps the larvae are carnivorous, forcing the inseminated females to hunt for other invertebrates (in this case bees), on which she lays her eggs, supplying the larvae with prey when they emerge. The adults collect nectar from flowers or from squeezing the bees they capture for prey;[citation needed] the nectar is their energy source for flight.

Notes:

After a few false starts where the wasps flew away at my approach, theey settled down and let me create multiple images. I am pretty sure I had a nest of them in my garden last year - and they are very territorial toward their nesting site! another series of photos http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/310...