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Perspectives‍
19 eager Jocassee Naturalist students capture a pair of ecology behaviorists and zip across Lake Jocassee. In a location known to a few sharp-eyed guides, and more than a few freaked-out families, we stop to point out a dirt bank on the leeward side of a popular point of land. The bank is pocked with dime-size holes. Some of the holes have collapsed; others look more like new construction, and tubes constructed of mud (and regurgitated spit?) rim each newer hole. But no one is home in this community. Our captivated entomologist/behaviorist/professor surmises these to be the nests of potter wasps, but it’s a ‘best guess’ without a proper specimen to identify. What happened to these winged creatures? Maybe they moved on. One hopes they were not the victims of some well-meaning parent brandishing a can of Raid, fearing a child might be stung. But humans can be that way. Just ask the Northern water snakes. Or what’s left of them. ~K