Blue Winged Wasp (Scolia dubia) on Tall Thoroughwort (Eupatorium altissimum)

Blue Winged Wasp on Tall Thoroughwort
 in Chicken Yard 8/19/2020

Now there's a lot to unpack in this picture.  I snapped this in the Chicken Yard when I noticed that the plant -- which I now know is Tall Thoroughwort -- was covered by these amazing-looking wasps as well as a number of bees.  If you look in the upper right of the picture you'll see one of The Ladies -- I believe she is one of our California Whites.  Moving down the picture, you'll see two wasps:  the one on the left may be a Great Black Wasp, but I'm focusing today on the wasp on the right, a Blue Winged Wasp.  And lower in the picture, you'll see an unidentified species of bee.  I knew this plant that I had saved when I mowed and the chickens had allowed to survive in their Yard was a power pollinator and I had to know more about it!

When I sat down to write this morning, out came my beautiful hard-back copy of Carl Hunter's Wildflowers of Arkansas.  (When I put it on my Christmas list years ago, we were young and frugal -- even more frugal than we are today.  I expected the paperback, if at all.  Steven learned a bit more about the bibliophile in me when I gushed that it was the HARDBACK!)  I learned from Mr. Hunter that the plant was Tall Thoroughwort and that it occurs in Arkansas mainly in the Ozark and Ouachita Mountain regions.  That's us!

Further research on Tall Thoroughwort turned up a great article from the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service.  The plant is also known as Tall Boneset or Feverwort and was an important herbal remedy into the 20th century.  European settlers learned from Native Americans of its medicinal value.  The leaves and stems of blooming-age plants can be boiled into a concoction to be served as a tea to treat bone aches associated with severe fever symptoms and to break the fever. Word is that the tea tastes awful.

Now about that wasp.  The wasp on the right in the picture is a Blue Winged Wasp. This beautiful wasp features black wings with a blue sheen that appears in the right light, along with an orangish-brown abdomen with two yellow spots at the top.  Also known as the Digger Wasp, the best thing to know about these beauties is that they help control Japanese Beetles. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" surely applies here!  In addition to pollinating plants such as Tall Thoroughwort, Goldenrod, and mint, the female Blue Winged Wasp digs into the soil and attaches her egg to a grub, usually that of a Green June Beetle or a Japanese Beetle. Go BWW!

I did find some conflicting information about whether the Blue Winged Wasp is native or non-native. InsectIdentification.org tags the wasp as non-native, but Sinclair Adam at PennState Extension says it's a native.  I'm going to go with PennState Extension, because state extension services rock!