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Tools for Transporting - _TNY_4774

So here is a female sand wasp, I believe it is the red-banded sand wasp (Ammophila sabulosa), but we have two more Ammophila species in Sweden and at least one of them, the little sand wasp (A. campestris) look quite similar. That one has rarely been seen in later years, so this really should be A. sabulosa.

 

She suprised me by landing in front of me carrying this for her size huge caterpillar which she had paralyzed.

 

The plan here is to transport the caterpillar to the burrow she has dug in advance and bury it there together with her own egg so that her offspring will have freh food when it hatches.

 

Thos huge mandibles look perfectly adapted to carrying large prey though, right?

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Uploaded on October 2, 2023
Taken on July 9, 2023