They are small, they are fast and they are industrious.
They may have lived in the neighborhood of your patio for ages, and unless you graciously noticed them during their communal wedding day, you might not know of their existence at all.
Take a closer look and I bet that their large, green eyes will make you smile in admiration.
Large? That is understandable.
But why green?
Large? That is understandable.
But why green?
Find one of the openings to a tunnel dug into sandy ground, plop on your belly and wait.
Lower yourself to their level!
Yes, you, the all mighty human YOU!
THEY, the wasps, already know a whole lot about you - what you look like, how you smell, how hot you are. They probably sense your intentions too.
But what, if anything, do you know about them?
Patience.
Observe!
Sand wasps are solitary creatures and we are more likely to spot them sipping nectar from flowers then digging burrows in sand.
Yet, when the time comes they will hang together for the purpose higher than collecting nectar for themselves.
They emerge as if out of nowhere - both the males and the females at the same time. It does not take long and the place is abuzz, the wasps flying in zigzag patterns just some 20 centimeters above the ground. Some sport yellow stripes, some white or grayish ones. According to some authors, the yellow ones are females and the whitish ones are males. But more I learned, less sure I was.
According to one author, the female has a large beak-like structure right by its mouth. Something like a swollen upper lip.I am guessing it might serve as a hunting device - the females supply their larvae with small insects until they grow into adults. Pretty hard job, considering that the female digs several underground burrows, place one egg near a zombied insect, closes the tunnel and lets the egg hatch and start developing. But she has to make sure that each larva (inside its own burrow) does not starve after the initial food supply (re: small bug) is all gone. So the female hunts for more and supplies each burrow again. Wow.
No wonder that as an adult it has no more appetite for bug protein. It sips nectar instead.
When I took this photo I thought that the wasps were mating but after reading all the other articles it must be the female flying above a male Note: the colours and the upper lip!
An attack of sorts, then?
The contact lasted a split of a second for everything about them is just a touch-and-go. Back to their solitary life.
For those who wish to learn more, there are nice couple of sites:
One: https://vancouverislandnature.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/the-sand-wasp-an-attentive-mother-terry-thormin/
Two: http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=piru_pubs
I photographed this green-eyed beauty a while ago - as an adult it was busy sipping nectar from thyme.
It is more than difficult to keep track of their movements while they dash back and fro. Here now, out of sight a millisecond later, they are the embodiment of the following quote:
“Energy is liberated matter, matter is energy waiting to happen.”
And there is a LOT of energy pumped into those tiny bits of matter!
Sand wasps are solitary creatures and we are more likely to spot them sipping nectar from flowers then digging burrows in sand.
Yet, when the time comes they will hang together for the purpose higher than collecting nectar for themselves.
They emerge as if out of nowhere - both the males and the females at the same time. It does not take long and the place is abuzz, the wasps flying in zigzag patterns just some 20 centimeters above the ground. Some sport yellow stripes, some white or grayish ones. According to some authors, the yellow ones are females and the whitish ones are males. But more I learned, less sure I was.
According to one author, the female has a large beak-like structure right by its mouth. Something like a swollen upper lip.I am guessing it might serve as a hunting device - the females supply their larvae with small insects until they grow into adults. Pretty hard job, considering that the female digs several underground burrows, place one egg near a zombied insect, closes the tunnel and lets the egg hatch and start developing. But she has to make sure that each larva (inside its own burrow) does not starve after the initial food supply (re: small bug) is all gone. So the female hunts for more and supplies each burrow again. Wow.
No wonder that as an adult it has no more appetite for bug protein. It sips nectar instead.
When I took this photo I thought that the wasps were mating but after reading all the other articles it must be the female flying above a male Note: the colours and the upper lip!
An attack of sorts, then?
The contact lasted a split of a second for everything about them is just a touch-and-go. Back to their solitary life.
The fine sand is flying at very high speed as this wasp methodically digs. Perhaps it is building an underground mansion for itself (definitely a male). It digs and digs, then crawls in and plugs the hole from the inside. Enough work for one day.
Pretty neat stuff.
For those who wish to learn more, there are nice couple of sites:
One: https://vancouverislandnature.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/the-sand-wasp-an-attentive-mother-terry-thormin/
Two: http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1007&context=piru_pubs
I photographed this green-eyed beauty a while ago - as an adult it was busy sipping nectar from thyme.
And by the large mandibles must be a female. But it has white stripes!!!! Confusing. Unless there is another reasoning for all that ...ah, as I mention at the beginning; there is still a whole lot to learn
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