Order Hymenoptera
Family Scoliidae (Scoliid Wasps)
Green June beetles have a good reason not to like digger wasps: the female wasps dig (possibly several feet) into the ground to find a beetle larva. Then she stings it, digs a little chamber around it and lays on egg on its back. When the egg hatches, the wasp larva eats the beetle larva.
1. Draw the long, tilted abdomen and rounder thoraxconnected by the narrow pedicel (waist).
2. Add the head and neck, large eye with a highlight to make it look shiny. Draw mouth parts. Add antennae.
3. Carefully draw the legs, counting the sections of each. Notice how the middle leg overlaps the rear leg in flight.
4. Draw the wings (in this view, we see only the closer two). Make light guide lines to show the segments of the abdomen.
5. Add shading and texture.
Test question! Why does a digger wasp dig?