The MGS Forum
Gardening in mediterranean climates => Wildlife in the garden (birds, butterflies, and how to attract them) => Topic started by: JTh on July 21, 2014, 05:49:00 PM
-
A strange sight today: a large female green bush cricket (Tettagonia sp.) was dragged around our house several times at a terrifying speed by a much smaller, but still large insect, 2,5-3 cm long, it went on for a couple of hours, until I accedentally stepped on the cricket in front of our outdoor kitchen bench. The smaller insect looks like a paper wasp, but I am not 100 percent sure, so I would be happy to get it properly identified. It seemed to be looking for a place to hide the cricket, which was still half alive, without being able to find anything suitable.
The photos are not that good, the creature was moving too fast, but maybe somebody (Oron?) could help me?
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3856/14706383861_30aeb21031_n.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/opy4yr)_7212074_David and Goliath.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/opy4yr) by JorunT (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
(https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3843/14686570076_f6f4892a0a_n.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/onNvBs)_7212091_.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/onNvBs) by JorunT (https://www.flickr.com/people//), on Flickr
-
Hi Jorun,
Have you considered Sand Wasps? The insect in your 'photo looks amazingly like an illustration in my Collins guide to Insects - Ammophila sabulosa - distinguished by entirely black legs......I am no expert but since coming to live in Italy have been fascinated by the range of insect life to be found in the garden and am always trying to identify things. When my grandson was about 7 or 8 he spent 2 months with us and when he got bored I would send him off, with small yogurt pots, to find as many different ones he could, then we would try to name them all.....I often get waylaid from the task in hand when coming across something unusual but consider the knowledge gained an interesting "by product" of being a gardener. :)
-
Absolutely a possibility, the legs were strikingly long and black, but the waist was not as long and slender as the sand wasp's. It looks lmore ike a black spider wasp (Anoplius viaticus, a solitary wasp), except I'm sure it was bigger than the described size of this spider wasp (12-14 mm), but colours were about right.