More on the sand wasp

May/June 2021

 

Covid quarantine

Morning coffee on the patio steps.

Watching the Quisqualis fallen blooms

Being disturbed by a buzzing.

A green and black digger

vanished into a hole

at great speed

in the blink of an eye.

Another one I spied

Hovering and humming

searching it seemed

for its secret entrance.

And then it vanished within.

I take a picture, 

ASK MNS

voila, an id emerges - sand wasp, Bembix species - 

even before the said insect did!

Anyways, the next few mornings

coffee and sand wasp gazing.

Sagarika sent me this link - Bug Eric had seen them in North America.

Which one was mine

Here in Chennai

I still have not figured.

Watched the way she shovels 

so powerfully

front legs flinging the sand

making tunnels

laying eggs

feeding larvae

catching flies.

And this link described the males

buzzing and wasping

patrolling the openings

laying wait for the female to emerge;

copulate.

One track minds

or instinct?

Quarantine ends

My observations come to a halt

generations of wasps

buzz in and out

unseen and unheralded.