Golden Hunting Wasp

This is the smaller of two red wasps I see here. This one has dark wingtips. The other doesn’t, and it is much bigger. They prey on spiders, which makes them enemies, as far as I’m concerned. There were so many beautiful and interesting spiders before they moved in.

I don’t know for sure what its scientific name is. The name Sphictostethus nitidus appears to be applied to both, but I find it difficult to see them as different genders of the same species.

We are having a midsummer cool snap. The temperature struggled to make it to the teens and I saw through a chink in the clouds covering the mountains that the peaks were covered in snow.