Wasp's going on here?

While I was relocating a very excitable huntsman spider from the kitchen to the garden, a black flower wasp (Scolia sp.) dropped in to see what was happening. Of course, I didn't have my camera so I had to rush back into the house, find it and then track down the wasp. Luckily, they're not that difficult to spot, given that they're 3 – 4 cm long and their wings have an eye-catching iridescent blue sheen.



To make things trickier, I had the macro lens on, so I had to get close to this mighty buzzer to take the photo. Even though they're not aggressive wasps, I still gave it breathing space.

The newly-liberated hunstman was reasonably safe from the attentions of this species. Unlike the orange-and-black pompiliids, which lay their eggs on live but paralysed spiders, the black flower wasp prefers curl grubs and other scarab larvae as hosts for their young. Without lawn, my garden is probably scarab free, so there are slim pickings here for these wonderful wasps. At least I got a close look before it moved on.