Kiss of a wasp

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Kiss of a wasp

August 30, 2014 by Mike Powell

I don’t know much about the intimate life of wasps, but it sure looked to me like one of them is giving the other a loving nibble on the back of its neck. Both of them were covered in a lot of pollen, like they had just had a roll in the hay, figuratively speaking.

The two of them had flown to this flower in what appeared to be a mating position, though I can’t tell if the wasps are actually hooked up in this shot. My experience with dragonflies, however, has shown me that insects can mate in all kinds of unusual positions.

I am comfortable with moving in close for photos of bees, but I decided that in this case it was prudent to maintain a respectful distance from the wasps.

Posted in Flowers, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer | Tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Huntley Meadows Park, kissing wasps, mating wasps, Tamron 180mm macro lens, wasp | 17 Comments

17 Responses

on August 30, 2014 at 9:01 am | Reply atodavis

Beautiful shot
- on August 30, 2014 at 9:13 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. This is a situation that I have never before seen and I was happy I was able to capture it.
on August 30, 2014 at 9:09 am | Reply Beachbums1

Great shot!
- on August 30, 2014 at 9:12 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. I never know what I will find when I go out shooting with my macro lens on my camera.
on August 30, 2014 at 10:23 am | Reply benrowef64

In Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy series The shadow of the Apt, Wasp have a male dominated society where the female wasp’s job is to cook clean and look after children. I am sure they do have tender moments of love between each other though.
on August 30, 2014 at 10:53 am | Reply naturesnippets

It’s a shame you just can’t ask them.
on August 30, 2014 at 11:46 am | Reply krikitarts

Whatever they’re doing, the one being nibbled on is very likely thanking his (or her) lucky stars that they didn’t enter the world as mantises this time around…
- on August 30, 2014 at 11:53 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  I’m assuming they both survived the encounter. In addition to praying mantises, I know that female spiders will sometimes consume prospective mates. Yikes! Rejection can be hurt, but things could be a lot worse.
on August 30, 2014 at 4:49 pm | Reply afrenchgarden

Do those types of wasps sting? Amelia
- on August 30, 2014 at 8:58 pm | Reply Mike Powell
  
  I don’t think so, but didn’t want to take a chance.
on August 30, 2014 at 9:22 pm | Reply Ed

More like “move over and get out of the way, nope its my pollen” 🙂
Great shot..
on August 30, 2014 at 9:23 pm | Reply Sue

Boy, those are some long-legged wasps, and they must be great pollinators with that load of pollen they are carrying. That’s a pretty nice photo of an unusual behavior!
- on August 31, 2014 at 6:19 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks, Sue. I genuinely am not sure of what the wasps were doing, but it was a cool moment to capture nonetheless.
on August 31, 2014 at 8:30 am | Reply New Hampshire Garden Solutions

Nice shot! I don’t know enough about them to know what they’re doing either, but they were doing it in great lighting.
on September 1, 2014 at 10:08 am | Reply mariekeates

For some reason we have been short on wasps this year. I can’t say I’ve missed them.
on September 15, 2016 at 8:28 pm | Reply Eric Hepperle

Great shot Mike! I had an interesting thing happen today. I went to take a sip of my ginger beer and there was a yellowjacket wasp swimming in it. Thing is, I only discovered her after I had already took a sip! I got tickled by the dog paddle she was doing.

That’s my kissed by a wasp story.
- on September 16, 2016 at 4:31 am | Reply Mike Powell
  
  Thanks. I guess you can be happy that you discovered the yellowjacket with your eyes and not your mouth.