Royalty

This pair of German wasps suddenly appeared as I was tracking the less common, common wasp in the crabapple tree. The one on the left was obviously a queen. She was huge. The other was small and slim, and I took him to be the male. If there had been any hanky-panky then I missed it. She was pumping and curling her abdomen, while he was hurrying about under the leaves. When he paused on a crabapple there was no time for me to change the settings, which is why the shot is blown out. I was intrigued to find later that he had his front left leg in his jaws.

Unfortunately all this happened in a few seconds, and they flew off in opposite directions before I could dispatch the queen. We have more than enough of these pests without a whole new dynasty.