Brown-legged Grass-carrying Wasp

About the Brown-legged Grass-carrying Wasp

The Brown-legged Grass-carrying Wasp is a solitary wasp with one of the most charming habits in the insect world: females fly home trailing long blades of grass like streamers, threading them into hollow stems, tube nests, and even window tracks to build nurseries. If you have ever found a wad of dried grass stuffed inexplicably into a gap, a grass-carrier probably put it there.

She stocks each grass-lined cell with tree crickets and katydids, paralyzed and stored fresh for her larvae -- one of nature's more efficient pest-control services, and completely harmless to people. The adults themselves are gentle nectar feeders, glossy black with the warm brown legs the name promises, usually seen working summer flowers.

This one was photographed on July 8, 2023 in eastern Travis County during a productive summer macro morning -- the same session that filled several pages of this site's insect collection.

Watch a female instead of chasing her: grass-carriers commute on a fixed route between grass patch and nest hole, and the photo opportunity is the moment she wrestles an oversized blade into the wind like a tiny pole vaulter.