Spider Wasp (Entypus Unifasciatus)

This (Entypus Unifasciatus) is one of the Spider Wasps. It is a fairly large wasp sometimes as long as one and one-quarter inches not counting legs and antenna. The adults dine on flower nectar and pollen. The female hunts spiders, usually wolf spiders, stinging to paralyze the spider so that she can drag it backwards often a considerable distance to an underground spot that had been carved out by another animal. The wasp would have already dug a chamber off the main enclosure in preparation for bringing and inserting the spider and laying one egg on one large spider. The female Spider Wasp repeats this procedure many times, which makes her tattered and worn by September. The larva eats the spider, spends the winter there, and emerges in the spring. There is one generation per year.