Great Black Wasp - Sphex pensylvanicus
Quickly following up from yesterday's post featuring two species of Grass-Carrying Wasps, hopefully the insect individuals featured here can serve as an aid in identification. As mentioned, if size is removed from the equation, this species of Wasp can strongly resemble the appearance of some North American Grass-Carrying Wasps at a glance. However, more closely inspecting them will reveal features such as a differently-structured head with larger mandibles, an overall longer and rounded abdomen attached to a shorter petiole/wasp-waist, and drastically larger and longer legs. For the lattermost feature, the hindlegs are of particular note given their extreme length if you can imagine them at full extension. All in all, this amounts to an imposing Wasp with a characteristic "Sphex-like" form. While it may be a big shortcut in terms of amateur identification, nearly all North American Sphex genus Wasps have a similar look to them in terms of body proportions, even if the coloration can vary wildly between dark and ornate. Regardless of appearance, allowing a sprawling Wasp like this one to carry on about its day of foraging and/or hunting is wise. I personally play things safe and do not attempt to handle any type of Wasp, and I recommend the same caution to all readers. Especially if you have a confirmed allergy to insect stings.
Having said that, based on some of the prior insects I've handled for a closer look, I can see the appeal of allowing a Wasp to explore a palm or an arm in a safe manner. And as far as Wasps go, solitary Digger Wasps can be a relatively safe bet to handle carefully if positively identified. The goal being to give the insect room to move without harm so as to avoid its sting. Do note, however, that according the sting pain index within "The Sting of the Wild" book, the sting of a Great Black Wasp registers as a 1 out of 4, indicating a sharp but overall minimal and short-lived pain on average. The pain inflicted is not simply from the stinger jabbing the skin, but also from the venom introduced to the bloodstream. Although we know a lot about the prey capturing behaviors of Wasps like this one, we actually know very little about the specificity of the venom's composition other than it's full of peptides designed to dysregulate the bodily functions of Orthopterans. What is a certainty, however, is that the venom is specialized for hunting insects by stinging multiple times, and it (usually) has a minimal effect on humans. The venom likely contains inflammation compounds based on human interactions, but the more intriguing peptides are the Wasp kinins (this a large group of compounds, with each Wasp possessing its own unique blend) which causes a captured Katydid's body to experience muscle contractions and paralysis by blocking neural signals.
Pictures were taken on July 21, 2021 and August 8, 2023 with a Google Pixel 4.
