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Black Flower Wasp

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Black flower wasp

This beautiful creature is named "black", but is really a deep, dark blue.

The black flower wasp is a parasitic wasp, preying on the big fat curl grubs that are the larvae of several kinds of beetles.

Black flower wasps are no hazard to humans. They can sting, but they're not in any way aggressive, so stings don't happen.

As for the curl grubs—well, beetles are rather nice, but it's a bit sad to see a plant quickly wilt and turn up its toes because of having its roots chewed off. The birds in my garden aren't over-enthusiastic about eating big grubs, so if there's a smaller predator quietly keeping the numbers down I'm all for it.