The Black Wasps

These guys are all over this hanging plant on the porch . . . they might be living in it, for all I know. And they favor that one particular stem more than any other stem. What gives? Who are they? What do they like about it?!?

The Elusive Tarantula Hawk Pollinates

This guy is huge—about two inches long, if not longer. And so beautiful!

Red Wasp on Wisteria

The Elusive Tarantula Hawk Continues to Elude Me, Sort Of

A rare ground sighting on a recent morning of a tarantula hawk; it was foraging among the leaves under cedar trees behind the outdoor shower. These photos do not convey the giant purpley golden-orangeness that this insect has in flight, its gangly legs all hanging down and its wings spread wide, as it desultorily yet mysteriously lazes its way through the air!

Wasp on Garlic Chives

Wasp and Crape Myrtle

Wasp Nest in the Rosemary

Tarantula Hawk

Arghhh! Why, why, why can't I get a decent photograph of the elusive tarantula hawk? So shiny, so purply-black and purply-golden, so Gorey-like as it flies around with its giant legs hanging down.

These are the only other snaps I've managed of this guy. In six years. It's sad, really.


This one is crappy but I love it anyway

Oak Grapes

But they're not grapes. Nor are they eyeballs a la "Brother From Another Planet"—you know, when Joe Morton takes his eyeball out of his head and leaves it in a potted plant so he can spy on the suspected heroin dealers. I believe that these little grapey things which are all over one, just one, of the little starter oaks flourishing at the edge of the front patio are actually oak galls in a stage earlier than I've seen them before. But I really don't know squat about such things, so don't quote my post in your science report, okay?

Tarantula Hawk Bags Tarantula!

Hugh and I had just loaded the recycling into the truck this evening when he suddenly noticed and became very excited about something in the driveway. When I looked over, I thought at first that it was a hummingbird catching or being caught by something, but it was instead this giant bug walking backwards and dragging this tarantula along with it. I know now that the insect is a tarantula hawk, and Wikipedia has some fascinating things to say about them:

During the spiders's reproductive season male tarantulas are usually emaciated from ignoring food while searching for females. The tarantula hawks thus prefer female tarantulas and seek them in their burrows. They capture, sting, and paralyze the spider, then they either drag the spider back into her own burrow or transport their prey to a specially prepared nest where a single egg is laid on the spider's body, and the entrance is covered. The wasp larva, upon hatching, begins to suck the juices from the still-living spider. After the larva grows a bit, it plunges into the spider's body and feeds voraciously, avoiding vital organs for as long as possible to keep it fresh. The adult wasp emerges from the nest to continue the life cycle.


These wasps are relatively docile for a wasp and rarely sting without provocation though the sting, particularly of Pepsis Formosa, among the most painful of any insect. Commenting on his own experience, one researcher described the pain as "…immediate, excruciating pain that simply shuts down one's ability to do anything, except, perhaps, scream. Mental discipline simply does not work in these situations." In terms of scale, the wasp's sting is rated near the top of the Schmidt Sting Pain Index, second only to that of the bullet ant and is described by Schmidt as "blinding, fierce [and] shockingly electric". Because of their extremely large stingers, very few animals are able to eat them; one of the few animals that can is the roadrunner.


I believe that this is the mysterious and tantalizing purple and gold giant insect that I have been seeing flying around here, and which I've been trying to photograph, for the last five years. Except I haven't seen it that often, and I think only once before have I gotten a snap of it at all. Victory is mine! Though sadly, victory is not the tarantula's.

Wee Deaths

This is the tiny skull of a dead bird I found in the driveway on July 4th. I am pretty certain it's one of the little wrens. It's not quite tiny enough to be a hummingbird, and the feathers don't indicate a hummingbird either. It is 3/4 of an inch long and about 5/8 of an inch wide.


I no longer remember where I found the wasp; somewhere in the house in the last several weeks. Its curled antennae are so beautiful!

Red Wasp, Dead

On front porch on Wednesday. Once again, computer troubles hinder posting lately. Sigh.