Fascinating Wasps

[Judge101]

I spent my lunch hour pottering about in my garden watering some pots of tomato plants , whilst sitting down having a relax I saw a couple of small black wasps similar size to flying ants but much skinnier flying irractically around the now dampened pots. I then noticed 1 of them stuck in a spiders web so i decided to stay and watch the proceedings !! He escaped awww but then flew straight back into it hmmm anyways he struggled for a bit and a small black and white striped spider started to run towards his "prey" the spider got to within about 4 cms and then turned and ran for his life!! the wasp then casually untangled itself and did the same thing to another web , whilst watching this the other wasp then climbed out of a tiny burrow it had made in my tomatos dampened earth. Were these wasps actively hunting the spiders as it really did seem so? and if so what kind of wasps are they? Anyhow ive never seen anything like it but it really was fascinating.

[Geoff F]

That certainly sounds like Spider Hunting Wasps, Pompilidae family.

They catch and paralyse a spider then drag it into a burrow and lay an egg; which means the newly hatched larvae will have something to eat.

It is amazing how they can drag prey much bigger than themselves back to the burrow. Some species construct the burrow first while others catch a spider first then dig a burrow nearby.

They finish the burrow by covering the entrance with pieces of vegetation and earth.

Anoplius nigerrimus is all black while most of the others contain some red or white markings, although these colours can be difficult to spot while the wasps rush around.

[eucera]

It could also possibly be a Trypoxylon species. Depends a lot on the size and shape! Trypoxylon are certainly both small and skinny