100 More species #98: Grass-carrying wasp

Grass carrying wasp, Isondontia sp.

A few days ago Alexis called my attention to an insect carrying a long blade of grass through the air. It was a strange sight, since the insect was fairly small (about 15mm long) so it looked like a dry bit of grass was piloting itself upwards and away from us without help from the wind. Then I photographed this medium sized black wasp a couple days later, only to find that it was probably responsible for the flying grass trick.

Some wasps chew up wood and make paper nests of hexagonal cells, some take mud into their mouths and make clay pots or pipes, some lay their eggs in the tissue of living plants and let their grubs live in the weird galls that result. Grass-carrying wasps gather blades and stems of grass and stuff them into a cavity to make an unkempt analog to a typical songbird's nest. Into these nests they lay their eggs and provision them with paralyzed tree crickets. (The most well-known cricket is the snowy tree cricket, whose song can be used to tell the temperature).