Insect and Spider Identification: CLOSED: Help identifying thread-waisted wasp?, 1 by ncaptiva

ncaptiva wrote:
A big, black thread-waisted wasp with at least one thin, yellow stripe (there may have been one or two more stripes, but I don't think so) smacked into my arm today & then landed right in front of me on the table I was sitting at. It had a small, green caterpillar/inch-worm looking thing in its clutches. It appeared to be stinging it repeatedly, but I'm not sure if it was actually making contact or not. It then flew over to its nest (which I discovered right behind me) and crammed the worm into the nest! It was pretty cool to watch :)

In any case, all I have is a picture of the nest. The wasp went back out to hunt (I assume). I'm hoping I've provided enough info, though, for someone to help me identify it. I'm interested in finding out everything about its behavior (how aggressive they are, the level of pain their sting produces, what exactly it is that he's feeding (the nest looks so tiny, I can't imagine him fitting into it), habits, behaviors, etc... anything else I can learn, really. The screw above the nest should give you some reference to the nest's size, but if you need more info, just ask!

Oh, by the way, I live in the Tampa area of Florida.

Thank you!

This message was edited Jun 17, 2010 10:01 PM