Red Hunting Wasp

I’ve been trying to get a shot of one of these wasp for weeks, but they move so fast there is no time to focus on them. This one was floating in the birdbath and looking rather unnatural, with its wings open. Normally they are neatly folded, with the gold part very bright and the dark part a tidy line. It is a spider hunter. The female paralyses the spider and stuffs it in her nest along with an egg. I hate them. I’d much rather have the spiders.

Hoping to get a positive ID for this wasp I did an image search and was surprised to see a photo I took of the much larger golden hunting wasp. The photo has been stolen by a website that I cannot get access to. The photo was originally published on a research website with a clear copyright symbol against it. A further search showed that other sites are using it for different purposes. Perhaps I should be flattered, but I’m bloody annoyed.