I had only one intention when I stepped onto the patio this afternoon, but that changed quickly when I spotted a Great Black Wasp behaving in what I thought was a peculiar manner . . . until it wasn’t.

Rather than flying around the flowers, where I usually find these large wasps, who may be aggressive in terms of flying at me to let me know I need to take a step back, but never actually stinging me, this Great Blue was walking frantically through the grass. Well. we call it grass. I guess I should say “across the lawn,” but that sounds too fancy for our yard.

Do you notice something strange about the wasp? It was actually carrying a spider. I was stymied at first, until I read that they bring home treats for larvae to feed on. This I wanted to see.

What I observed was that the wasp dropped the spider on the edge of the patio and then the wasp scrambled around on the ground for a bit before flying off. The spider stayed dead still . . . cuze it was dead! Apparently, the wasp won the struggle, if there was one, and paralyzed the spider.

Since the wasp had flown off, I decided to give it some time, though I was curious to know if it would return. Dragonflies defend territories, but do wasps know where they dropped a meal?

Instead, I turned my attention to the flowers that are still in bloom, including this Oregano I let go to flower because though I love its flavor, I equally love the insects it attracts, like this Thread-waisted wasp.

That got me to thinking how I often see the insects in situ, but don’t get to follow their daily lives.

That said, I poked around some more and found Bumblebees on Sedum,

Great Blue Lobelia,

Plus Turtlehead . . . going in,

And backing out.

There was even a Green Stink Bug trying to trick me into thinking it was just part of the leaf.

But I let it know that I was aware of its existence.

There were even a couple of canoodling wasps who flew out of the herb garden and landed on a window screen before moving on.

I, um, moved with them to the corner of the house, where they frantically walked across the ground as well. But when they finally flew off toward the driveway, I decided to give them some space.

(Note: Do you see the brown maple leaves? Who would think that after last year’s drought we’d have too much rain this year, but that’s exactly what happened and the Sugar Maple leaves in some places are drying up and dropping. Fall foliage? I’m thinking it’s not going to be as spectacular a show as we’d like.)

When I returned to the spider’s location, I noticed that the wasp had returned but was behaving in an odd manner . . . or so it seemed to me. Its legs on the right side appeared to have collapsed.

Eventually, however, it stood on all six and walked back toward the spider.

I was amazed to think that this insect had flown off, but knew where it had left the intended meal. All I can think of is that there has to be a scent involved.

The wasp proded the spider with its antennae before grasping it again.

And then the two headed off in the same direction of travel as I’d earlier observed (north). Until, that is, the wasp passed under the dandelion leaves and somehow dropped the spider. Off the wasp flew, but again, a minute or two later, it returned to the exact spot and located the spider that I couldn’t even see.

Then the march began again and I followed the two until the wasp reached the edge of another garden. It climbed over the granite stone, taking the spider with it, and then disappeared below the foliage and that’s the last I saw of them.

I’d gone outside originally to sit on the patio and start rereading a book I read about 30 years ago. That never happened.

And I don’t know the rest of the story for the Great Black Wasp, but I sure wish I did. I wish I knew what happened between the wasp and the spider because I imagine that would have been a great show. And I wish I knew where the wasp’s hole was and its larvae were waiting for a meal, as I assumed.

One of these days, I’ll open that book and maybe the rest of the wasp’s story will be revealed or another story will attract my attention.