19 August 2025
Final Thursday Charity Kheshgi and I have been on a slender path at Frick Park after we needed to cease as a result of an enormous black wasp was flying backwards and forwards over the path, generally touchdown and wiggling her antennae on the bottom, then flying once more in entrance of us. Charity obtained a photograph of her on the bottom. Why received’t she go away?
Whereas we waited I googled “black wasp with yellow antennae, orange-tipped wings” and came upon she was a spider wasp, most likely Entypus unifasciatus pictured under. She was doing one thing actually creepy and we shouldn’t get too shut.
“Feminine spider wasps [E. unifasciatus] hunt for wolf spiders to provision their nests, which they typically create in pre-existing cavities or burrows.” — paraphrased from Missouri Dept of Conservation.
Wolf spiders combat these wasps however she flies to keep away from his attain, then stings him and injects her paralyzing venom.
Due to camouflage it took us some time to appreciate that this wasp had a sufferer. She turned the paralyzed spider to verify he was motionless, then grabbed him along with her jaws, dragged him backwards down the path and disappeared into the weeds the place she’d established a burrow.
This picture by Lafe on Flickr reveals a spider wasp dragging a wolf spider throughout his garden.
The wolf spider is alive however can not transfer. Inside her nest …
On the finish of this burrow is a deep cell or chamber carved out upfront by the feminine. Whereas depositing the spider there, she lays a fertilized egg [on the spider]. As soon as her egg hatches, the larva begins consuming the spider whereas it’s alive, however nonetheless paralyzed. As soon as the larva grows massive sufficient, it pupates on this cell over the winter, and emerges as a winged grownup within the early summer season.
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As a result of females lay many eggs in a season, they need to gather a number of spiders as meals shops. This often signifies that their look is a bit haggard and worn out by the tip of summer season due to many victorious battles.
Creepy.
