So, as usual, I was outside, filling bird baths when I spotted something cool....This time, it was a big metallic blue wasp digging in the sand. For once, I had my point-and-shoot in my pocket! So I pulled it out and got some shots. Two videos, too. She was quite a digger!
I quit filming just as she pulled out something out....a Boll's sand roach. She then wrapped her abdomen around it. I assume she was biting and/or stinging it to paralyze it.
She looked up at me a few times as if to say, "This is MINE, buster!" I laughed. "Don't worry," I said, "it's all YOURS!"
Finally, she carried it off a ways, then flew off. I followed her to a nearby oak branch. From there, she flew off into the sky, headed to her nest where the poor roach will be fresh food for her newborns.
Because she's preying on cockroaches, then this wasp is likely Chlorion cyaneum. A few years ago, a blogger in Arizona observed this species in the field.
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