Life On A Quarter Acre

I watched this wasp dig a nest for a half hour or so. \r\n\r\nAfter completing the nest, she retrieved a cutworm that she had previously paralyzed and cached several cm above the ground on a plant stem 2.5 m from the burrow.\r\n\r\nThe wasp carried her prey to the nest in 5 minutes. This included climbing a 30 cm vertical concrete block wall. (See the photo above, which was taken during her climb up the wall.)\r\n\r\nWhen she arrived at the nest, she left the prey next to the entrance, entered the burrow, turned around, and pulled the caterpillar into the nest with her mandibles.\r\n\r\nShe then closed and covered the nest, which took about 5 minutes.\r\n\r\nAfter she finished, I dug the caterpillar up and placed it in a container. A single egg was placed on the left side of the second abdominal segment. The egg was 4.0 mm long and 0.9 mm wide.\r\n\r\nI\'ll let you know if the egg hatches.\r\n