tags: Lucasberg, wasp, Hymenoptera, behavior, streaming video
This streaming video is a fascinating close-up interaction with a wasp by the photographer, who goes by the name Lucasberg. To get these amazing shots, he used a 180mm SLR macro lens. The photographer says the video is a little shakey because he was balancing on the handrail of his porch and could only use 1 tripod leg while filming. [1:06].

GrrlScientist is an evolutionary biologist, ornithologist, aviculturist, birder and freelance science and nature writer. A native of the Pacific Northwest, she relocated from Seattle to NYC with her parrots after earning a BS in Microbiology (emphasis in Virology) and PhD in Zoology (Ornithology) from the University of Washington. In NYC, she was the Chapman Postdoctoral Fellow at the American Museum of Natural History for two years, pursuing part of her "dream" research project by reconstructing a molecular phylogeny of the parrots of the South Pacific islands. GrrlScientist and her five parrots are currently relocating to Germany, where she will continue writing her blog while also writing a book and learning German. (Meanwhile, her parrots will continue to nibble on her extensive personal library.) If you appreciate GrrlScientist's writing, you can help pay her living expenses by hiring her to "blog" your conference, speak at your club or write articles for your publication (or by clicking on the Paypal button below). If you read an essay on this blog that you especially enjoyed, please nominate it for inclusion in 
























Comments
Nice video.
Does anybody know why there are spots in the wasp's eyes? Are there some specialized ommatidia there? Some sort of regional difference in photoreceptors?
Posted by: Will TS | April 22, 2008 1:46 PM
I love vespids! This one's a beauty.
Reminds me of the time my husband was stared down by a bevy of Polistes dominulus workers after he beat a rug against a clothesline pole that turned out to be their clothesline pole. He said it was the first time he'd ever been aware that insects were watching him. (And, no, they didn't sting him.)
Posted by: Julie Stahlhut | April 22, 2008 9:04 PM