Spider Wasps

As Yogi Berra said, "You can observe a lot just by watching." 

This morning I was poking around the garden and out of the corner of my eye I saw what I thought was a big spider creeping around. But on closer observation, it was a wasp dragging a spider across the mulch. Below is a still shot and a video. I watched this wasp drag the spider for about 20 feet. Then our cat Zinny curious about what I was looking at, intervened and the wasp flew off. 

This was a spider wasp. Spider wasps hunt spiders by stinging and paralyzing the spider then dragging or carrying it to a hole they use for a nest. An egg is then laid on the spider and the developing wasp larva consumes the paralyzed spider over the next month an a half. The wasp usually continues its development in a dormant stage over the winter in the nest, emerging the next spring. Spider wasps are types of hunting wasps that do not make colonies, but individually dispatch their specific prey and use it as food for their young in a solitary nest. Most spider wasps are blue-black and/or orange-red.