CLOSED: Pretty Wasp?

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Lily_love Central, AL(Zone 7b) Sep 17, 2009

These seem to be very fond of the blooms of these Sedum. What type of bee/wasp? Are they aggressive if disturbed?

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melody Benton, KY(Zone 7a) Sep 17, 2009

It is a Digger Wasp: http://davesgarden.com/guides/bf/go/1831/

There are quite a few different ones.

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Lily_love Central, AL(Zone 7b) Sep 17, 2009

Clearer view:

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Lily_love Central, AL(Zone 7b) Sep 17, 2009

Thank you Melody. It's nice to know, they're not aggressive! I've seen yellow stripes wasp carried off Monarch caterpillar before. Will these likely do the same?

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melody Benton, KY(Zone 7a) Sep 17, 2009

Most of these digger wasp species have a specific insect that they hunt. Some prefer crickets, some katydids. They are a beneficial predator, but I'm not sure what insect this one likes.

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suunto Sinks Grove, WV Sep 17, 2009

This is not a digger wasp, it is Scolia dubia (Hymenoptera: Scoliidae), a parasitoid on the soil-dwelling larvae of scarab beetles, particularly those of May beetles/June bugs. Like digger wasps, they are not aggressive. See http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/O&T/lawn/note12/note12.html for detailed information.

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melody Benton, KY(Zone 7a) Sep 17, 2009

Thanks suunto...I've learned something too. We need to edit BugFiles to denote this.

What should we edit the entry to denote a common name? Is there a common name?

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Lily_love Central, AL(Zone 7b) Sep 17, 2009

Thank you to both, the more I learn, the more I enjoy. The pretty wasp does indeed have the beautiful blue "metalic" characteristic wings. Perhaps this pix will show it better.

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suunto Sinks Grove, WV Sep 17, 2009

About the only vernacular name I have seen associated with this species is "blue-winged wasp"; not in my opinion very helpful, as there are many other wasps with blue wings! (Most wasps in this family simply are known as scoliid wasps). Only a very small percentage of the insect species described worldwide have well-accepted common names.

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melody Benton, KY(Zone 7a) Sep 17, 2009

I'll edit to show scoliid wasp then. We have to have something in the field or the entry will not post.

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