re than twice her weight. After putting the cicada in the nest cell, the female deposits an egg on the cicada and closes the cell with dirt. Male eggs are laid on a single cicada but female eggs are given two or sometimes three cicadas; this is because the female wasp is twice as large as the male and must have more food. New nest cells are dug as necessary off the main burrow tunnel and a single burrow may eventually have 10 to 20 cells. The egg hatches in one or two days, and the cicadas serve as food for the grub. The larvae complete their development in about 2 weeks. Overwintering occurs as a mature larva within an earth-coated cocoon. Pupation occurs in the nest cell in the spring and lasts 25 to 30 days. There is only one generation per year and no adults overwinter.
Although cicada killers are large, female cicada killer wasps are not aggressive and rarely sting unless they are grasped roughly, stepped upon with bare feet, or caught in clothing, etc. One author who has been stung indicates that, for him, the stings are not much more than a "pinprick". Males aggressively defend their perching areas on nesting sites against rival males but they have no sting. Although they appear to attack anything which moves near their territories, male cicada killers are actually investigating anything which might be a female cicada killer ready to mate. Such close inspection appears to many people to be an attack, but male and female cicada killers don't land on people and attempt to sting. If handled roughly females will sting, and males will jab with a sharp spine on the tip of their abdomen. Both sexes are well equipped to bite, as they have large jaws; however, they don't appear to grasp human skin and bite. They are non-aggressive towards humans and usually fly away when swatted at, instead of attacking. Cicada killers exert a natural control on cicada populations and thus may directly benefit the deciduous trees upon which their cicada prey feeds.
Chrysisid Wasps. These tiny wasps are characterized by their shining coloration made of iridescent blue, green, purple which are true pigments (red, brown and white) and are very rare in insects. The typical brilliance is emphasized by the exoskeleton sculpture, which is carved by a complex punctuation and by projections, crests and holes. In addition there is a reduction of the number of the external abdominal segments, the presence of 11 antennal segments and for the wing veins with 5 closed cells. Some tropical species have apterous females and a body without metallic reflections.
Cuckoo Wasps. Images Courtsey of (left) Pollinator and (right) Alvesgaspar.
Currently about 3,000 species have been described worldwide. Chrysidids are parasitoids with some species being cleptoparasites meaning they lay their eggs on host that are already parasitized by other wasps. In addition it is not uncommon for the newly hatched cleptoparasitic larvae to attack and kill the other parasitic larvae thus leaving more food for themselves
Velvet Ants. Their common name velvet ants refers to their dense hair which may be red, black, white, silver, or gold. They are known for their extremely painful sting, facetiously said to be strong enough to kill a cow, hence the common name cow killer or cow ant.
They invade the nests of wasps and bees as their exoskeleton is very tough and roughly textured to protect against stings. Like related families in the Vespoidea, males have wings but females are wingless. They exhibit extreme sexual dimorphism; the males and females are so different that it is almost impossible to associate the two sexes of a species unless they are captured while mating. In a few species the male is so much larger than the female that he carries her aloft while mating, a characteristic that is also seen in the closely related family Tiphiidae. In all Hymenoptera only the females sting because the stinger is a modified ovipositor. Like all wasps they can sting multiple times. A structure called a stridulitrum on the metasoma is used to produce a squeaking, chirping, or humming warning