Horse Guard

The "Horse Guard"


A Purple Martin dropped this male wasp on Ladd Hockey as it was delivering it to young in Port O'Connor on June 17. Fortunately for me it was a stingless male. A female likely would have stung the tar out of me. These large wasps fit into a group called Horse Guards by the layman as they are often found around livestock where they search out and paralyze Horse and other flies. These the wasps then take the flies to a pre-constructed tunnel that has an egg laid by the female. The wasp then stuffs the tunnel with those flies before sealing it, providing food for the next generation.

They look similar to, but are not the larger Cicada Killers we often see flying about in the summer months hunting cicadas. Both burrow into sandy soils.

I have been very busy with family matters and work and have had little time to keep the blog updated. Hopefully that will change soon.