Katydid Wasp

Meet the archnemesis of the leaf-rolling cricket, the Katydid Wasp.

Here, it's fueling on nectar in the same Summersweet shrub as the cricket I posted two days ago. Adult wasps are vegetarians and part of any pollinator garden. But their larvae are meat eaters. She will find and paralyze one of those crickets (or a katydid), and carry it back to her deep underground nest. There she will lay her egg under it (maybe add a few more crickets for good measure) and then close the entry. Parenting done! It's Sphex nudum on Clethra alnifolia.