Dig this digger!

Someone brought us this wasp in a plastic cup.

Its hard to tell from the picture but the wasp is almost 2 inches long. This is a digger wasp. I can't say for sure what species it is, but it might be the great golden digger wasp (Sphex Ichneumonius). Digger wasps are in a group of solitary wasps call Sphecids (Family: Sphecidae). When most people think of wasps they are thinking of social wasps in the family Vespidae.


One easy way to tell a vespid from a sphecid is the way that they hold their wings over their backs when they're not flying.

For example, this next picture (right) shows a vespid wasp that just landed on a piece of grass.  As you can see its wings are folded lengthwise and held out to the side at an angle. Sphecid wasps don't do this, instead they hold their wings folded one on top of the other flat over their backs. Both kinds of wasps are predators of other insects and while they can be a nuisance if they sting you or build a nest near your house, they are your allies in the garden and on the farm.

Look, but don't touch!

This is a black blister beetle (Genus Epicauta).  Their larvae eat grasshopper eggs but the adults mostly hang out on flowers and eat nectar and pollen.

Blister beetles (Family: Meloidae) are pretty infamous for their ability to defend themselves with a  poisonous chemical called cantharadin. They will secrete the toxin if you try to eat them or handle them too roughly, so be careful if you see one of these!

Crinkly pizza

We invented a new style of pizza. Haven't really decided on a name yet, but the crinklecrust was the first one that came to mind. I'm not sure about the market appeal for that name though. Anyway, this is what happens when you roll out your crust to be bigger than your pizza stone and then force it to fit anyway.

The pizza tasted great by the way! Here's the crust recipe (for 2 pizzas): 3/4 cup warm water + 2 teaspoons yeast (mixed together first).  Then, add 3/4 cup warm water, 2 Tablespoons sugar, some salt, 2 Tablespoons olive oil, 4 cups flour:  mix, knead, let rise, roll out etc... Its a pretty typical dough recipe that makes a soft chewy crust, not a crispy crust, but pretty darn good if that's what you're looking for. Also, just for fun here is another crunchy segment.
I think its funny that most of these animals are shown eating foods that they probably would not choose (or at least not have access to) in nature.

Darn big dragonfly!

We saw this monster sitting on the side of our house last week.

Its a Green Darner dragonfly. They are one of the largest dragonflies around.  To give you some idea of scale, here is another picture.

 

That cement block is 8 inches tall, so the dragonfly is about 3 inches long, at least! They are called green darners because their bodies are shaped somewhat like a darning needle. I'm still trying to figure out what a darning needle is. I'll get back to you on that one.