European mammoth wasp – Megascolia maculata

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🔽 License this footage here:
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I have seen quite a lot in the Czech nature, no question about it. Yet I still get moments of surprise when my heart skips a beat and I'm left standing with my mouth open. Like when my friend Ondra Nagl and I are fooling around in the meadow, and suddenly a giant mammoth wasp bursts out from behind the trunk of an old tree.

A mammoth wasp is... huge. It grows to the size of a hornet and a half, sometimes almost two European hornets. It's the largest of European Hymenoptera insects and since more than 10 years it's been a rare sight in Czechia, in several places in southern Moravia. The adult wasps are peaceful, flying around flowers and feeding on nectar. There are, however, some horror aspects to their lives. If you like one of our most beautiful bugs, the European rhinoceros beetles, you'd better not read any further. For in late spring, the mammoth wasps seek out rhino beetles' larvae, paralyze them with a stinger, lay their eggs on them, and the paralyzed rhinos then serve as a living can of food for their larvae. Ouch, but that's life. There are countless similarly delicious scenes in the insect kingdom.  

Let's get back to our unexpected encounter, though. That animal was massive! Ondra and I panicked a little, as it all took only a few seconds, but by some strange luck I managed to pull my equipment out of my backpack and got one short shot before the wasp flew away. We stood there in a daze, slowly realizing what had actually happened. What a densely demonic coincidence! We then spent the next hour waiting to see if the mammoth wasp would show up again and we could document it more thoroughly, but nothing else happened. I was left with a great experience, one lonely shot and a task for the future. I'll have to seek expert advice on how to see this fascinating creature again somewhere.

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Location: Lednice, Czechia | June 2022

Equipment: Panasonic GH6 + Metabones T Smart + Sigma 150-600 C

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Mammoth wasp | Megascolia maculata | Žahalka obrovská | Gelbstirnige Dolchwespe | scolie des jardins | avispa puñal | сколия пятнистая

#europeanwildlife #mammothwasp #megascoliamaculata