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.

---

References

¹ Nederlands Soortenregister

² KLEIN, Wim. De graafwespen van de Benelux. Jeugdbondsuitgeverij, Utrecht, 1996, 1-130. + KLEIN, Wim. De graafwespen van de Benelux: supplement. Jeugdbondsuitgeverij, 1999.

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.