Newby. First Post. I live in Kansas. My kids and I love to study bugs, there are always new ones we don't yet know or haven't yet found (collembola). When we travel we always take pics of bugs and once in a great while collect when numbers are very high. (Anybody want some Kansas mosquito's or ants?) Our house is on a small bit of land by a park which seems to be on loan to us from the birds and squirrels and ants here. There are wondrous places in the wild here where dragonflies are so numerous they come out of the cedar trees and light on you, 3 or 4 at a time. Butterflies too. And we found a place in the woods where the wheel bugs thrive in the thousands. We only see one of these bugs in town once or twice a decade. We called them saw blade bugs until we found out their real name. The crest on their back looks like half a table saw blade.

The spineless creatures Gallery shows a cicada wasp. (Great photos - some award winners in there). We are entranced by these large and beautiful wasps and are amazed when we see them carrying their prey off to their ground nests. We can actually get right up to them when they are busy with a dig or hauling off a cicada. I have had them land on my sleeve and prove to my kids that if you don't bother a wasp, it won't bother you. (we're not allergic or we wouldn't tempt fate. Our ground bees are just as safe to be among)

Since the picture in spineless creatures gallery is from PA, I wonder how widely distributed these wasps are. Does their distribution match that of the cicadas? All cicadas? Here in KS, they are usually found hunting the annual Dog Day Cicada, but I doubt if they discriminate. I just suspect that the wasp might not thrive where annual cicada did not. We see 10 or more wasps on our property every summer. Anybody else so taken by these flying heavy haulers?

Bug Love back atcha. Z