"Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Note: Thanks to Brandon Woo, Contributing Editor, BugGuide, for making the ID, which may be accessed here: http://bugguide.net/node/view/1240001 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 12 June 2016 Meridian State Park Meridian, Bosque County, Texas Great Golden Digger Wasp was large and brilliantly dressed in its zany orange and black with hints of red and yellow. It was interested in half-starting to dig any number of holes on the trail. It flies in Texas from May through November per the BugGuide data map, and ranges across most of Canada and the United States. Its range extends south through the ""neotropics""--Mexico, Central and South America. According to the BugGuide description, Great Golden Digger Wasp ""takes nectar at flowers and feeds its young on various types of paralyzed Orthoptera."" Because of its wide transcontinental range north and south, Great Golden Digger Wasp is an authentic resident of the Western Hemisphere. Meridian State Park opened in 1935 and is administered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Source: ""Species Sphex ichneumoneus - Great Golden Digger Wasp,"" BugGuide, Department of Entomology, Iowa State University, range map, photographs, description, classification, resources, accessed 6.16.16, http://bugguide.net/node/view/414"
"Great Golden Digger Wasp (Sphex ichneumoneus) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Note: Thanks to Brandon Woo, Contributing Editor, BugGuide, for making the ID, which may be accessed here: http://bugguide.net/node/view/1240001 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- 12 June 2016 Meridian State Park Meridian, Bosque County, Texas Great Golden Digger Wasp was large and brilliantly dressed in its zany orange and black with hints of red and yellow. It was interested in half-starting to dig any number of holes on the trail. It flies in Texas from May through November per the BugGuide data map, and ranges across most of Canada and the United States. Its range extends south through the ""neotropics""--Mexico, Central and South America. According to the BugGuide description, Great Golden Digger Wasp ""takes nectar at flowers and feeds its young on various types of paralyzed Orthoptera."" Because of its wide transcontinental range north and south, Great Golden Digger Wasp is an authentic resident of the Western Hemisphere. Meridian State Park opened in 1935 and is administered by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Source: ""Species Sphex ichneumoneus - Great Golden Digger Wasp,"" BugGuide, Department of Entomology, Iowa State University, range map, photographs, description, classification, resources, accessed 6.16.16, http://bugguide.net/node/view/414"