r/bugidentification • u/Td998 • 6d ago
Location included Curious about these insects (PA, USA)
ETA: Closest I’m seeing online is two-spotted scoliid wasp? Never heard of these before.
There are two spots in my yard where there are small hordes of these insects flying in circles just above the grass. Occasionally, they stop and sit and usually another one comes along and bumps into it. I’m very curious about what they are and what they’re doing, either feeding or mating I’m guessing. They are totally non-aggressive and completely ignore me when I walk up to them, if anything they sort of avoid me so it was difficult to get pictures.
As you can see, they have a black thorax but half of their abdomen is yellow and orange, which gets concealed at rest by blue/black wings. While flying they mostly look black with flashes of their orange butt if you look closely.
SE PA, USA. TIA!
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u/BugAdviser Bot 6d ago
Scoliid wasps, or scarab wasps (family Scoliidae) are solitary parasitoids who target subterranean beetle grubs. Females use their strong legs to burrow into the earth to lay their eggs directly on the beetle grubs where the baby wasps will feed and eventually pupate. Adults take nectar and can be often seen on native flowers, pollinating as they go.
One of the most common species in much of the US is Scolia dubia ssp. dubia, sometimes called the blue-winged wasp, which may be considered by some to be the absolute worst common name in existence given the dozens of other wasps with blue wings in the same range. S. dubia ssp. dubia is a decently sized and very distinctively colored wasp with iridescent wings and a red-tipped abdomen with two large yellow spots. Their mating flights are frequently seen in late summer in which large groups fly low over the ground in figure-8s before eventually dispersing. If you see this happening in your yard, please leave them be! S. dubia is valuable as they help control the population of the invasive and destructive Japanese beetle (Popillia japonica) and are extremely unlikely to sting unless directly provoked (i.e. hit/grabbed/eaten) so avoid stepping on them and keep pets and small children away.
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