This female Tachysphex pompiliformis [1] lay at the end of the afternoon upside down with her back on the tiles and seemed dead. After being picked up this assumption turned out incorrect as she started moving, although not enthusiastically. She did not seem wounded or damaged, maybe she was dying?
I took her in for a photo session. During this she was behaving awkwardly, alternating between active periods and suspended animation in which she would lay motionless flat on her belly or side, and would not even respond to touch.
The next day she received her freedom back. During the photo session I had already fed her sugar water but reasoned she might like some nectar andI put her on a flowering Fennel. There she sat for a while without drinking or moving and then flew away.
All in all a somewhat peculiar introduction with this new garden species!
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