Crumby Would Starve if He Photographed Pompilidae for Food

OK Crumby. There’s a spider wasp loose in the backyard. You need to go take its picture. Once you get an acceptable picture, and the spider wasp has been properly identified, you can have some supper.

Mercy whines Crumby. I shall starve to death. I’ll never get a decent picture. Those spider wasps are too quick for me. They never rare up out of the vegetation long enough to get a clean shot. Oh my Goddess! I’m already starving plus wasting away. I’m already skin and bones. Skin and bones!

Yes. Few would be able to handle the kind of stress a spider wasp photographer might experience. Especially if the spider wasp photographer was paid in food. What has the world come to that such horror can even be imagined? Why it’s a worse concept than wedding photography. Way worse.

Anyway, Crumby has spent weeks fixing to get a picture of this here Pepsis menechma. And the funny thing is, Crumby knew this was Pepsis menechma before he even got a picture. That’s because this species is practically the only wasp with a black body and yellow antennae. Easy to glimpse, not so easy to get a picture.

The common name for Pepsis is tarantula hawks. But the CB has no tarantulas maybe. So what does this Pepsis eat. Not Fatty. Better steer clear of fatty.

Another bug Crumby would starve to death on is tortoise beetles. The CB has a bumper crop of Ipomopsis trichocarpa this year. Consequently, since the tortoise beetles like their morning glory, we have some of them too. But they are even more elusive than the dang spider wasps. Way more elusive. Ugh! Crumby may have to sweep and catch some. Ugh! Oongawa!