Great Golden Digger Wasp
Great Golden Digger wasp sipping nectar from a Snow on the Mountain.
The digger wasps are solitary wasps living independently rather than in social colonies. They do not depend on other members of a colony to share in the raising of young or the maintaining of a nest. There may be several females working independent nests in a small area and several males may be "swarming" in the vicinity.
Female great golden digger wasps dig nearly vertical burrows, with individual larval cells branching off horizontally. They provision each cell with a paralyzed cricket, katydid, or other related insect, then lay a single egg inside. The paralyzed insect remains alive and therefore fresh until the egg hatches and the resulting larva devours its mother's thoughtful gift.
Ogletree Gap
Copperas Cove, Texas
16 August 2009
Uploaded on August 17, 2009