Nature can be beautifully horrifying, and today's nightmarish double feature comes to you from Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, an otherwise serene and magical place.
I was walking along a path on a recent afternoon when I saw a large insect flying towards me, then landing in a fir tree.
Hello, what's this?
As my brain pulled the image into focus, the true horror of the situation dawned on me. This is a female Cicada Killer Wasp who has just caught her prey.
The wasp clutched the cicada as she hung from the fir tree by one leg. The cicada spasmed a few times, but appeared to already be paralyzed by her sting. As I reached for my video camera, the wasp flew away, but not before I was able to get a few photos. In the one below, I think the wasp looks pretty pleased with her catch, which she presumably took to her burrow to feed to her offspring.
I like cicadas - to me, they always look like they're smiling - so I was sad for this one, but the wasp had a successful day, so there's that.
One insect I'm less fond of is the Spotted Lantern Fly. Here's one of those suckers now:
And I do love dragonflies, especially the Blue Skimmers who seem to be the easiest to photograph as they perch for long spells and are not very timid.
So, what happens when a Blue Skimmer meets a Spotted Lantern Fly?
I found out when, once again, I saw a large insect flying towards me. It looked like a dragonfly carrying something...indeed, it had a lantern fly in its clutches!
Having your face eaten off by a dragonfly has got to be one of the more horrible ways to leave this world.
The lantern fly was not yet dead at this point, struggling as the dragonfly bit into its neck (or what ever that part is that is between the head and body).
I guess I do feel bad for the lantern fly, but am glad to see a dragonfly preying on them. Until this day, I had not seen anything eating these invasive insects, so it's a good thing that our local predators are catching on that these make good meals. Since then, I've also see a Great Crested Flycatcher feasting on a lantern fly.
After it was done eating, the dragonfly discarded the wings, which you can see in the photo below as the blurry red blob in the background.
I was able to get video this time, which you can see here:
