DIGITAL FIELD GUIDE: WASPS (Order: Hymenoptera)
Ammophila procera
<-- from Key Location 5a
Identification features: Of the three species of Ammophila observed in the Gardens, Ammophila procera is the most showy and distinctive. Ammophila’s general shape and color pattern is easy to recognize. The wasp is large, nearly two inches long, and very slender. The abdomen is attached to the thorax by a long thin stalk, and the tip is a slender bulb. The stalk part of the abdomen is black, changing into reddish-orange as it thickens, and back to black at the tip. When the wasp is at rest, she holds her wings one over the other across her back leaving the bulbous part of her abdomen exposed. Her head and thorax are velvety black, and bold silver swashes adorn the sides of the thorax. It is these silver streaks, as well as her large size, that distinguish her from the similarly colored Ammophila pictipennis.
Nesting habit and prey : The female wasp builds and provisions the nest, which is a hole in sandy soil. (Ammophila means “sand-loving”.) After she digs a hole, she hunts for caterpillars. When she has gathered several caterpillars, then lays an egg on one of them and seals the nest. She then moves on to build and provision additional nests.
Ammophila as pollinator : Ammophila is found nectaring on many Garden plants with shallow flowers which have nectar accessible to her short tongue, such as Texas kidneywood, butterfly bush, Mexican thistle, mortonia, turpentine bush, dalea, threadleaf groundsel, and croton. Although not particularly fuzzy, she is often observed with pollen covering her mouthparts and face. As she flies from plant to plant, sipping nectar, she also moves pollen from flower to flower, which makes her an important pollinator of native vegetation.
