European mammoth wasp ~ Megascolia maculata
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- Опубліковано 1 жов 2024
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🔽 License this footage here:
1url.cz/yugUs
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"I have seen quite a lot in the Czech nature, no question about it. Yet I still get moments of surprise when my heart skips a beat and I'm left standing with my mouth open. Like when my friend Ondra Nagl and I are fooling around in the meadow, and suddenly a giant mammoth wasp bursts out from behind the trunk of an old tree."
These words were the beginning of my post from June 23rd this year, in which I introduced madame Megascolia - the mammoth wasp.
"A mammoth wasp is... huge. It grows to the size of a hornet and a half, sometimes almost two European hornets. It's the largest of European Hymenoptera insects and since more than 10 years it's been a rare sight in Czechia, in several places in southern Moravia. The adult wasps are peaceful, flying around flowers and feeding on nectar."
After our experience with Ondra, a big search action started in the style that I enjoy the most - somewhere there is a mysterious creature moving around and I desperately need to film it.
Based on my sightings of the similar Scolia hirta wasps, I identified flowers that the Megascolia might like. I have mapped out locations in southern Moravia where these plants could theoretically flower, and I have gradually made the rounds of several such places... and yet nothing. No Megascolia around. My enthusiasm gradually waned as I had other things to do, time passed and many promising plants slowly went out of bloom. I was thinking that I would let it go for this year and next spring I would start earlier and properly... but then Anna Naru Hromková appeared.
Anna suddenly emerged from the depths of the internet as a mysterious woman who admires all living things and is not afraid of anything - feeding hornets and wasps from her hand, getting bitten by various beetles... and, for example, she also takes home chilled mammoth wasps to recuperate on her balcony. When I saw close-ups of Megascolia on Anna's hand on Facebook, I was struck by lightning and immediately had to ask if we could come and film the wasp. Even though Ondra and I were strange weirdos to Anna, she decided to help us. In the meantime, however, the black-and-yellow model on the balcony realized that it was actually feeling fine, pumped its wings just before being caught in a box, and gracefully disappeared into the distance. How surprising, isn't it? So I at least asked where Anna had met the wasp in the first place, and on July 18th I determinedly went to the spot with my camera.
It looked exactly as I had imagined. A dusty dirt road, along which stretched a belt of all sorts of weeds, and in it, slowly dying off southern globethistles - the most promising plant for an encounter with mammoth wasps. It was 9 AM, the temperature was casually climbing towards 30 °C and the globethistles were bursting with life. Crowds of Scolia hirta, wasps, bees, and various species of bumblebees were grazing on them. Nice, the flowers obviously still have something to offer, even if they are past their zenith. But there's no sign of the mammoth wasps. So I got my gear ready, started filming other insects and kept my eyes peeled for my dream giant. With hope in my heart, I wondered if maybe Megascolia works similarly to the big dragonfly species - after all, it's a huge insect that needs a lot of heat to warm up, and so maybe it arrives to feast later than the smaller creatures. And you know what? It was just like that. At the stroke of ten o'clock, when I was dripping with sweat and the air was as thick as a desert, the mammoth wasps really arrived. Four of them.
They weren't really doing anything particularly exciting. They flew from flower to flower, feeding on nectar, just like bees. But they were massive! Right after getting a few basic shots, I set myself the task of getting two huge wasps side by side in the picture. This turned out to be a rather exaggerated expectation, which unfortunately didn't work out even after several hours of filming. However, you can compare the Megascolias in the video with the Scolia hirta, the well-known European paper wasp or the European hornet to get an idea of how big the animal really is. Even though the mammoth wasps were right in front of my eyes, the following question kept popping in my head: Does this thing really live here in Czechia?
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▷ Location and date
South Moravia, Czechia | July 2022
▷ Equipment
Panasonic GH6
Sigma 150-600 C
Metabones T Smart
Viltrox extension tubes
Sennheiser MKE 600
Zoom F3
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▶ UA-cam
/ lukaspichvideo
▶ Instagram
/ pichlukas
▶ Stock footage
www.pond5.com/...
www.pond5.com/...
▶ E-mail
pichlukas@email.cz
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Mammoth wasp | Megascolia maculata | Žahalka obrovská | Gelbstirnige Dolchwespe | scolie des jardins | avispa puñal | сколия пятнистая
#megascoliamaculata
To mě zajímá, jak moc jejich bodnutí bolí 🤔
Krásné video ,jako ovšem pokaždé ❤👍👍👍
این زنبور چقدر زیبا است من کودکی خود را با این زنبور به سربردم
ایا این فیلم در چه کشوری گرفته شده است
2:14
a B52 😂😂😂
Just as a size comparison, at 1:28 we can see a European Hornet coming into the frame. I live in the suburbs of Budapest and I've been seeing M. maculata the last few years. We also have a lot of Rhinoceros beetles and Pentodon Idiota, which Megascoila parasitize. I love these wasps, they look scary but are very docile and beautiful.
🧡
Wow ! I didn't even know this species existed and I'm a fan of hymenoptera ! After doing some research, it's not native here in Belgium unfortunately so it's great to be able to see your video. Thanks !
It really is a stunning creature. In Belgium you will have to wait for the planet to warm up a bit more, even here in the Czech Republic the Megascolia can be (rarely) found in the southest south only :-)
I just saw one here in Libya so I took a picture and started to search about it
Wow! Great job!
Osy pri nej vyzerali ako chudobní príbuzní.
Jo jo, pěkně zastínila všechny okolo 🙂
Thanks for this video!
I grew up in Italy, M. maculata is a welcome indicator of the returning population of O. nasicornis there, now I live far away and I love videos like this reminding me of the happy sides of my childhood.
Thanks for stopping by! :-)
Wow! What a fantastic insect! The Mammoth wasp! Greetings from Rome!
Thanks! 🙂
Ahoj prosim ta ako sa vola ta pesnicka a umelec??❤
Center Of The Sea - Survivor ;-)
At first thought I saw a cicada wasp
Seeing these giant scoliid wasps feel almost magical. Last month I saw a giant bug buzzing over my head and when I caught it with a net, turned out to be a closely related species, Megascolia azurea. Very gentle and huge despite the menacing buzz they make. Amazingly beautiful animals, thanks for sharing!
Yes, watching them was one of my last year's best wildlife experiences :-)
No ta je krásná a barevná jako naše příroda.Moc hezké video Lukáši 👍🤗🌼🌸
Díky :-)
Letos jsem ji poprve videla i na Vysocine, jsem se hned bezela podivat na net, co to proboha je za obra :D
Kde na Vysočině, prosím?
@ Horni Lazany, Lesonice. Byla srazena u cesty, asi autem, ale jeste zila. Z dalky jsem myslela, ze je to nejaky brouk, jak byla velka :D Od roku 2018 diky kurovci a skoro 80% vykaceni lesu se nam zmenilo mirne klima a je tu hodne dusno a vedro v lete.
To je dost zajímavý údaj. Fotku náhodou nemáte? :-)
@ Bohuzel :( ja se ji docela bala 😅 ony se u nas zacaly pred par lety objevovat i drvodejky vsech velikosti, tak jsem tomu nepriklada moc vahu...
@@Kwietitze Tak příště 🙂
Bomba :-)
Díky :-)
Tak tuto vosu jsem jeste nevidel. Asi bude dost vzacna, nebo?
Video má jako vždy i popisek ;-)
Krásná žahalka a hezká příhoda 😃 Zdravím také z jižní Moravy 💞🙋♀️
Díky :-)
Labai graži vapsva. Norėčiau tokią pamatyti gyvai. Sveikinimai 🤝
Jednou se to třeba podaří :-)
1:45 is that a male Megascolia maculata or a Scolia Hirta?
That is Scolia hirta. I was not lucky enough to spot a male Megascolia 🥲
Thank you!
I have a photo of a scolia on my community page, but I was sure that it was a Scolia hirta. Now I am not so sure any more, I think it is acually a male M. Maculata.
No tak ten sršeň se tam mihnul asi půl vteřiny. Na srovnání velikosti to stačilo. Takže zdravím i Aničku .👍🍀🍀🍀🍀🍀
Díky :-)
Krásné záběry, úžasný úlovek a i zábavný popisek. Děkujeme Lukáši za sdílení a přeji další "lovecké" úspěchy. Ať se daří! K.
Díky moc 🙂
Boží video + příběh!
Díky :-)
great shots , mashallah , there is someone who creates this vitality !
Thanks!
Nice close-ups, well done.
Thanks!
Beautiful!
Thanks!
Nádherný hmyz, úžasné video, koukám na to už popáté. Díky za eukativní text
To mám radost, díky :-)
Nádhera. Znám toliko z literatury (Světem zvířat, mj.) Děkuju, šířím.
Díky :-)
Dobrý den. Tak se Vám to přece podařilo. Megascolia je úžasná a snad ji taky někdy v přírodě potkám.
Hezký den. Evelína
Díky, budu držet palce!
Úchvatné. Ty květy bělotrnu najednou vypadají jak sedmikrásky, vedle takového obra :D
Taky mi to tak přišlo 🙂
úžasné.jsi borec ,díky
Díky :-)
Úžasné 😍 asi bych měla respekt vidět je naživo.
Respekte je na místě, ovšem ne strach :-)
Zdravím Lukáši. Už jsem měl možnost vidět jí naživo a dobrý pocit z ní není. 🌞Pavel🦊
To se na to každý díváme jinak, můj pocit byl skvělý :-)
@ Souhlasím. Z hlediska pozorování určitě. 🙂
opět super ))
Díky :-)
Nádhera
Díky :-)