Cicada Killer Wasp (Sphecius speciosus)


Cicada Killer Wasp carrying Cicada at edge of Vegetable Garden 8/1/2020


So much life to choose from this week, but this lady won out.  Yesterday while I was harvesting corn, I noticed this dance of death going on at the edge of the garden.  Call me sheltered, but I had never seen anything quite like this.  I knew the Cicadas were out, because I had discovered a freshly molted one beside its shell on the back porch earlier in the week.  But what was this huge wasp -- although not as huge as the Cicada -- lugging it across the edging of the vegetable garden?

A quick search for "hornet carrying cicada" on Google led me right to my answer:  the Cicada Killer Wasp.  Aptly named, I'd say.  The Department of Etymology at the University of Kentucky has a great article on the wasp.  Smithsonian also has a solid article.  Wikipedia says it is correctly termed the "Eastern Cicada Killer Wasp," but neither UK or Smithsonian add the "eastern".  Briefly, I learned that the females can sting but are not aggressive, the males can be aggressive but don't sting, the females dig tunnels where they carry the paralyzed (not dead) cicadas, and that skunks sometimes dig up their tunnels and eat the larva and the cicadas that the mothers have stored for the larva to feed upon.  From the looks of our back yard, "our" skunk is on the job.

Comments

  1. EcowomanAugust 2, 2020 at 12:36 PM

    So, how big are the holes dug by the skunks? We may have some. Our dog, Maggie, had a run-in with a skunk 2 weeks ago, so I know they are visiting our place.

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    Replies
    1. SarahAugust 2, 2020 at 12:46 PM

      Aside from the large holes where she's tried to dig up our buried chickens, the holes are about three inches across and 2-3" deep, shaped like a skunk snout (kind of like a cone). Except for the larger hole she dug to get into the Chicken Yard. We get outside promptly each evening to close up the chickens. We do NOT want a massacre!

      Delete
    2. SarahAugust 2, 2020 at 1:01 PM

      Also, I'm assuming the holes are skunk holes because we know she is living here. But Steven caught an armadillo on the game camera the other night, so maybe I'm unjustly blaming everything on the skunk.

      Delete

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