1" black insect with wings that burrows in ground

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sophie180 Kalamazoo, MI Aug 16, 2013

I just followed a black insect (looked like a cross between a ant and a wasp, approx. 1" in length, wings about the length of the body) drag a carcass of a dead bug for 15' before it found its home, a hole in the ground. It trailed through grass almost in a straight line to its destination. The dead insect looked similar to a light brown cricket(?) the same size as the carrier. A couple of times it did fly/hop through the terrain so I know it will fly without the weight it was dragging. Does anyone know what it may be? Location is in southwest Michigan.

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Flapdoodle Minot, ND Aug 16, 2013

This would be a wasp in the family Sphecidae; these are several species in that family that specialize in choosing insects in the order Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets, katydids, etc.) to provision their burrows where their larvae feed.

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