Thread-waisted wasp from Ziguinchor, Senegal earlier this year.
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My photo won’t do it justice, but take a look at the taxon page for Pepsis mildei for much better photos. It’s stunning and terrifying, they’re large!
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Here’s a cute tiny one:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/140009729
And a sand wasp:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/54540464
Both from my own observations.
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Biggest one I’ve seen so far tried to drill a hole to oviposit into my rain barrel. She didn’t succeed but gave it a really good try. I think she must have confused it with tree bark.
I caught these two in the act of being cute on my mountain mint.
And this one wowed me with the heavy-weight prey she was hauling off. I caught her taking a rest on a leaf in my milkweed patch before flying off with her prize. I seriously was not expecting her to be able to move it, much less fly with it!
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(F) Euurobracon yokahamae - very long parasitic wasp!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/232411769
(F) Gasteruption thomsoni - Parasitic carrot wasp girl who have long legs :D
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No one has bought the designer wrapped ichneumonid?
Not a great image, but iNat learning curve.
Seen on iNat, then recognised n my garden!
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Here’s my most common wasp, new world banded thynnid wasps:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/217166956
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Tarantula hawk …
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Sooo…how are we defining “wasps”? Hymenoptera is one of those funny ones where there are a few groups (bees, ants, sawflies) within the order that people tend to treat separately.
I find pretty much all of them cool (with the possible exception of social vespids which for some reason I find difficult to muster up much excitement about).
A few of my personal favorite finds:
Eucharis adscendens, an odd-looking wasp with a rather remarkable life cycle. The adults are only active a couple weeks a year and are typically found on umbellifers, where they lay their eggs. The larvae are carried by ants into their nests, where they develop on the ant brood. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/221156561
Otoblastus luteomarginatus, an ichneumonid with striking blue eyes https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/164494263
Cerceris ruficornis, here an unusually cooperative male who allowed me to get the photos of his sternites needed for ID: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/227060056
An attractively colored carrot wasp, Gasteruption hastator (“carrot wasp” because they are fond of visiting umbellifers, not because they are carrot pests) https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/171620133
Megastigmus aculeatus, which lays its eggs in rose hips https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/167587263
And of course such a collection would not be complete without at least one jewel wasp, here Trichrysis cyanea, seen investigating Trypoxylon nests on my balcony https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/223151339
Unfortunately, one of my most memorable encounters is one I didn’t manage to document. Last year I was sitting on my balcony concentrating on trying to photograph a tiny beetle on one of my plants. I felt a tickling, looked down, and there was a wasp sashaying up my leg, carrying a de-legged spider. (I still wonder where exactly she thought she was going; the spider was clearly too large for her to fly away with it once she had finished scaling my person, and I doubt I looked like a suitable place to deposit her prey.) Now, I had been wanting to see a spider wasp in action, so one part of me registered this as highly interesting. However another part of me was pretty creeped out the proceeding (not the wasp herself, but having a dead spider touching me, as it was a type of spider I am pretty uncomfortable with, dead or not). This resulted in an immediate, instinctive reaction of reaching down and flicking off the wasp – even while a more objective part of me wondered what I was doing and regretted the missed opportunity. So the wasp was sent flying, after which I profusely apologized to her for making her lose her prey. In retrospect, my response may have been somewhat more risky than I realized at the time: spider wasps are supposed to have particularly painful stings, and I certainly wouldn’t have blamed her if she had stung the human so unexpectedly attacking her.
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I planted some Horsemint (Monarda punctata) in my front garden this year to try to add some native flowers for the pollinators, and I was shocked at the turn out that I got, particularly from the native wasps. I think I got at least five to seven native pollinator lifers from these plants, many of them being wasps. Here’s one of my favorites that I saw from these flowers. A Four-toothed Mason Wasp:
(sorry I forgot the link to the observation): https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/232017963
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This Ophion wasp, strangely graceful looking:
And this; I was sure it was a Lepidopteran larva, but apparently some wasps share the lifestyle:
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I also wanted to mention that there are a couple of really great recent books on wasps with all sorts of lovely photos and information:
Simon van Noort/Gavin Broad: Wasps of the World: A Guide to Every Family
Eric R. Eaton: Wasps: The Astonishing Diversity of a Misunderstood Insect (with some great “actual size” and comparison illustrations to give a sense of scale)
and a bit more spendy, but very nice (entirely illustrated using hundreds of photos taken by the author):
Stephen A. Marshall: Hymenoptera: The Natural History & Diversity of Wasps, Bees & Ants
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Great topic! I’ve fallen in love with wasps because of iNaturalist. Here are some that charmed me:
This little beauty with its white “eyeliner” and beautiful greenish-blue coloring:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/250946015
This one paused, helpfully, to do some grooming, and has adorable big eyes:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/250941772
This one was so tiny, and constantly moving, beautiful green with white-stockinged legs…its eyes were amazing too, but I botched those photos:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/249834521
I love this one’s huge eye and how it seems to sport a tiny mustache:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/249834521
This one seemed like a tiny cow, grazing the Solidago it was on:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/238898153
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I read this one: “Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps” by Seirian Sumner.
2022 - Harper, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers
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I find Philanthus triangulum pretty cute, actually. Those antennae, and the little crown pattern on the forehead of the males…
Though I think sawflies are generally going to be the clear winners of the hymenopteran “cute” contest. Certainly the larvae, but the adults have some pretty good potential, too.
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Whoa! I’ve never heard of one with an ovipositor that long!
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I will link to some other users’ obs if that’s alright:
Pachodynerus erynnis by John D Reynolds, this photo really captures how intensely purple the wings are, they usually come out looking gray in photos. They are super cute and easy to find nectaring at firebush.
Chrysis semicincta by Martin Galli. The coloration on so many cuckoo wasps is nuts, if I didn’t know any better I’d think it was photoshop.
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Yeah! I thought some threads were flying around a tree and I realized that she was searching for her victim in the bark of a tree 
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