Sunday, September 4, 2011

Digger Wasp/ Macro Monday

Great golden digger wasp

This digger wasp is preparing a home for her eggs.  She is digging an almost vertical hole in gravel, along which she makes burrows, one for each egg. She will sting an insect (cricket, katydid, or such) to paralyze it, move it to the burrow and lay an egg in it. The prey stays alive so that when the egg hatches it will have fresh meat.

Digging a hole for her nest


To see more macro shots visit  MACRO MONDAY at Lisa's Chaos.

22 comments:

Kathy said...

Gory eating habits but cool photos!

TexWisGirl said...

she's beautiful!

Elisa N Viajes said...

It´s completely amazing!
Have a nice week
Elisa, Argentina

Lorna said...

you're so benign about that; I find the wasp beautiful, as I find beetles beautiful, but I don't like her eating habits any better than I like the ear-grating continual chatter of beetles. Good thing I didn't sign up for Biology.

DeniseinVA said...

An interesting post and great macro's of your digger wasp. It's interesting to learn how each insect safeguards its survival.

Lois Evensen said...

Not much fun for the host insect, but pretty nice to have fresh food for baby.

Michelle said...

Cool! Nice detail on this close up.

Angela said...

Great picture! I did not know that about the digger wasp! I learned something new! Like that!

Randy said...

Colorful little thing.

Cildemer said...

Wow! This amazing wasp (makes me think of films about aliens because of its habits!)is so colourful!
Thanks for sharing your wonderful shots;o)

***
Have a nice and happy week****

Mark said...

Wasps are beautiful creatures.

Birdman said...

You make the wasp look enticing, so much color. Bzzzzzz!

Anonymous said...

Great colors and details. Happy MM

Darla said...

Interesting bit of info and quite a beautiful photo. It is amazing what we see when we really LOOK.

Darla

MadSnapper said...

the details of the wings and body are amazing, not so good the live food in the hole, i did shudder a little

MadSnapper said...

no beaches on holidays, to many PEOPLE. I am thinking the jagged shadow of the smooth log was the water rippling from hubby wading in it

Betty Manousos said...

what gems! i love these photos.

George said...

These are marvelous macros. You did a wonderful job getting these.

jabblog said...

Beautiful creature with deplorable habits - however, she's considering the well-being of her young;-)

Gillian Olson said...

Great picture, I've never seen this kind of wasp before.

Fjällripan said...

I have never seen one of those...Great close ups! :)

Rose said...

Better a cricket, than me! Great captures, EG.

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East Gwillimbury is a rural town less than an hour north of Toronto, Canada's largest city. My family calls me CameraGirl because I take my camera with me wherever I go.