This sturdy wasp was active in the garden for a while. It is a female Crabro peltarius [1,2,3].
She was very skittish and did not let me close, so all the photographs were taking from a distance. I’m not 100% sure but suspect it is the same female in all the pictures as there was always only one active and always in the same part of the garden.
I didn’t see her forage or building a nest.
Literature
1 Nederlands Soortenregister2 Klein, W., 1999 De graafwespen van de Benelux: supplement. Jeugdbondsuitgeverij, 1-37. + Klein, W., 1996. De graafwespen van de Benelux. Jeugdbondsuitgeverij, 1-130.
3 Jacobs, H.J., 2007. Die Grabwespen Deutschlands Ampulicidae. Sphecidae, Crabronidae–Bestimmungsschlüssel in Blank, SM & Taeger, A (Hrsg): Die Tierwelt Deutschlands und der angrenzenden Meeresteile nach ihren Merkmalen und nach ihrer Lebensweise, Hymenoptera III–Keltern, Goecke & Evers, 79: 1-207.
