Digger Wasp – An Namas

Whilst looking around an ancient village in An Namas in the Asir mountains of western Saudi Arabia I saw a was that I think may be a Sphecid wasp, also known as digger wasps. They are generally black-bodied insects or black marked with white, yellow or red; some are tinged with metallic blue or green. They range in size from about 2mm up to 51 mm long. They are worldwide in distribution, mainly occupying arid and semi-arid areas. Recent estimates indicate the presence of about 300 of the 9720 species occurring in the Arabian Peninsula

Locust Swarm returns to Khamis Mushait – Record by Farah Imran Shams

The images of the locusts flying in the air are from the 27th of June in the city of Khamis Mushait.. They came back around 6 in the evening and did not land on the ground. They mostly stayed in the air for around half an hour again. The rest of the images are from the next day. On 28th June, the locusts came back in the morning, around 9 am. Their visit was even shorter this time, barely 15 minutes long. This time, they descended on the roads and roofs in great numbers. I managed to get a few shots of them before they all moved on to some other spot. Again Digger Wasps were associated with the locust swarm and again all the photographs have been taken by Farah Imran Shams who has kindly allowed me permission to put them on my website.

Locust Swarm and Digger Wasps at Khamis Mushait - Report by Farah Imran Shams

On 26 June 2014 Farah Imran Shams had the chance to witness a locust swarm and sent me the following details “This is the first time I have seen one in the 8 years that I have been living here. It was not a very large swarm, but it stayed in my compound for half an hour, more than enough time for me to photograph some of this phenomenon. This incident happened at around 11 am in the city of Khamis Mushait. The pictures were taken in a housing compound called ISKAN II, which is a compound for military hospital doctors. The locust swarm was followed by an army of large digger wasps, a kind that I have not seen before. They were hunting the locusts by the hundreds and burying them in quickly dug nests in the sand. Three hours later, all the wasps had left as well, leaving dozens of holes in the kids play area. It was a very interesting and unique phenomenon, and my boys loved it”. Farah sent me a number of photographs of the event that I have reproduced below with kind permission. I have not seen anything like this in the time I have lived in Saudi Arabia and it certainly looks like an even to behold if I ever do get the chance.