The Death of a Killer!

  Oh, the things I find while on my hikes.  Mark joined me for a late afternoon trek about the place.  We started by heading to the pier and then made the rounds to check all of the fruit trees.  We made a great find as the vines were loaded with ripe Muscadine Grapes.  We picked a gallon bucket full of the black beauties before heading down to check the Sawtooth Palmettos.  We were in hopes to find their drupes ripe as well.  We were not so lucky there as we found nary a one.  Maybe next year will see a better season on those.  Last year we missed picking them in time and the possums feasted upon them!  As we headed back to check the citrus fruits, Mark found an interesting critter..or at least the carcass of one.

  He called to me to check out his find....a Cicada Killer!  Aha!  Well, I suppose since it has been an unbelievably active year for the Cicadas, it only stands to reason that it should be an active year for the Cicada Killers as well.  But, like I said, this was only the carcass of the killer bee.  I gingerly placed the dead critter on the deck to photograph.  It is not often that I have the opportunity to get up close and personal with these in the live form.  The wings and stinger especially caught my attention!  What a stinger this wasp had!

  The Cicada Killer is perhaps the largest wasp in these parts.  It is at least an inch and a half long!  The body is sort of a rust color while the abdomen is black and yellow striped making it look like a humongous Yellow Jacket!  Its wings are clear but have a rusty tinge to them.  The wasp gets its name from the habit of the female.  When she is ready to lay her eggs, she digs a long tunnel that has several chambers.  After she has the tunnel complete, she starts her hunt.  The female wasp will hunt down a Cicada and sting it.  This paralyzes the insect so she can carry it to the tunnel.  The Cicada is placed in one of the chambers and the female Cicada Killer will lay a single egg on the live (but paralyzed) Cicada.  She repeats this action to fill each chamber with a Cicada and egg.  After about two or three days, the egg hatches and the larva starts to munch on the live Cicada. It will eat until there is nothing left except the exoskeleton.  The larva will wait until spring before hatching from its pupa stage.  Then it will dig out from underground as a full grown Cicada Killer Wasp and the whole thing starts over again.  

   The adult Cicada Killers feed upon flower nectar to get their nourishment.  They do not eat Cicadas..only the larvae do.  The male Cicada Killer dies soon after mating and the female not long after she finishes her duties of hunting and egg-laying.  The one Mark found could have been either as they are alike in appearance.  It is hard to distinguish male from female.  The death of this critter was a natural occurrence, though, and was not by some predator attack.  The wasp was still intact.  Yep, I do find things like this amazing and will photograph a dead bug!  Should that come as a surprise to any of my readers?  Nah, I didn't think it would.