Gold-marked Thread-waisted Wasp
Eremnophila aureonotata
Gold-marked Thread-waisted Wasp · Brooklyn Botanic Garden · 26 July 2026
A Gold-marked Thread-waisted Wasp working mountain mint in the July border for nectar, which is what the adults live on. A solitary wasp of meadows and gardens across the eastern United States, and a relative of the Great Black Wasp, but slimmer, with the stalk between thorax and abdomen drawn out to a thread.
Black, with patches of gold hair on the face and the sides of the thorax that catch the light. The females hunt caterpillars, paralyse them with a sting and bury them in a burrow as food for a single larva. Solitary and uninterested in people; the sting is for caterpillars.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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