I visited the Cerceris fumipennis nesting site at the Cowling Arboretum from noon to 1pm. Clear, sunny, hot and humid---ideal wasp watching conditions (ideal for the wasps not the watcher!). I counted twenty two nests. I found three abandoned beetles, beetles dropped and left outside the nests by the wasps. In addition to the abandoned beetles, I was able to collect four beetles by gently tapping the returning wasps with my hand. Seven beetles total, a Buprestid bonanza compared to the single beetle collected during my previous visit.
Two of the beetles, one abandoned (Buprestis sp.) and one captured (Dicerca sp.), were very large. If I hadn't seen the wasp flying with the one beetle, I wouldn't have believed it possible. This feat raises further question of how the wasps capture these giant, well-armored beetles to begin with.
A lot of other wasp and bee activity occurred all around me, which I had to neglect while keeping my vigil for returning Cerceris wasps. I did manage to photograph an incoming Ant Queen Kidnapping Wasp, though I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of the kidnapped ant queen that the wasp left momentarily at the entrance of her nest. By the time I looked at it and recognized what I was seeing, the wasp grabbed it and whisked it into her burrow, a large reddish ant with wings, maybe Lassius sp.?
Eastern Comma
Cowling Arboretum
Northfield, Minnesota
Mason Wasp
front yard bee block
Northfield, Minnesota
Sphinx Moth, caterpillar
Cowling Arboretum
Northfield, Minnesota
Wasp Mantidflies
Cowling Arboretum
Northfield, Minnesota
Ant Queen Kidnapping Wasp
with ant
Cowling Arboretum
Northfield, Minnesota
Jewel Beetle (No. 1)
found abandoned at Cerceris fumipennis nest entrance
Cowling Arboretum
Northfield, Minnesota
TL=16mm
Jewel Beetle (No. 6)
captured from Cerceris fumipennis
Cowling Arboretum
Northfield, Minnesota
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