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Cicada Killer

Sphecius speciosus

Photo by samueltunnell
Published on Project Noah
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38.5934, -90.5514

Field Notes

Description:

thanks to ScottRasmussen for helping me with the i.d. on this one. Cicada killers are large solitary wasps that are known for feeding on Cicadas. Makes sense since I had about 50 million on them in my front yard.

Notes:

I spotted this huge dead one and was interested. I'd never heard of the species before so I took the pic with my house key to give a size reference.

Species ID Suggestions

Cicada Killer

Sphecius speciosus

Reference Link
ScottRasmussen
2

Comments (1)
ScottRasmussen
The males fight for territory and try to mate with any female that comes along, and then die when they've done their job. There's a little landscaped patch outside my office door that had about half a dozen large, seemingly aggressive wasps hanging around on it for a couple of weeks, and now there are just a few corpses. Keep an eye out for the really huge females burying cicadas to provide their hatching larvae with food. There have been a bunch of spottings on this site, here's mine: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/6827352
Photographed
PublishedAugust 3, 2011

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