Now We All Know

Blue-winged Wasp (c) HVI 2013

I was heading to the garden yesterday morning to pick some corn and noticed several very pretty wasps on the goldenrod. I had never noticed this species with the two yellow dots before. I snapped a few photos and went to the computer for identification.
This is the Blue-winged Wasp (Scolia dubia) it is also called a Digger Wasp. The female lays its egg in the larvae of green June Beetles and Japanese Beetles. They build a chamber around the paralyzed larvae and a new wasp emerges from the ground in 3 weeks.
They are native to Japan and were introduced to combat Japanese Beetle infestations. These wasps are now common from New England  to the South and West to the Rocky Mountain Region.


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