Dad sent me these photos of the remains of a gigantic wasp / hornet / monster from Dr Who which he had a “titanic struggle” with, after coming across it in his tool shed.
“It was a nasty brute” reminisced Dad, “but the 12 bore took him out easily enough”.
If anyone knows what this is, or how prevalent they are in Turre, we would be grateful to know.
Here he is:
Scolia flarifrons megascolia maculata flarifrons
There is a swarm of them on the two trees just below the fuente in Mojacar. It’s Europe’s biggest wasp.
see http://www.google.es/imgres?imgurl=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_VnNGN7rfSvU/SH53xEImlyI/AAAAAAAAA34/bZ79e6COsDk/s400/abejorro.jpg&imgrefurl=http://foto-natura-huesca.blogspot.com/2008/07/abejorro-scolia-flarifrons-scolia-hirta.html&usg=__XaIiGhpu88IBsIdU3bgU-jtM0QY=&h=400&w=345&sz=25&hl=es&start=29&itbs=1&tbnid=iEfVQOYOW1DhWM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=107&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dabejorro%26start%3D20%26hl%3Des%26sa%3DN%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1
We had Europe’s biggest scolopander (giant centipede) in our house last night. Bloody thing!
Thanks. Ugh – “it´s larvae are laid inside beetles”………..
Lennox, The Mammoth Wasp ?.
Well I suppose it’s good to know I shan’t find a wasp bigger than that one. Does it sting tho?
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I have found A wasp that I swear is the same as this one in Florida , USA. It was almost as big as my thumb and flew right past my head and into screened in porch where I was working.
I captured him if any body is interested.
I recently learnt that our local Registrador de la Propiedad owns a couple of light anti-aircraft guns. (He leases them out to film companies, and when not on set sit proudly on his roof terrace).
I’m thinking of borrowing one to take down these flying menaces….