Photographer: Ed Finney, Sarasota, Fla.

Summer in the South NEXT | START OVER | PREVIOUS An unidentified red wasp on Salvia Indigo Spires.I thought wasps were carnivorous — they just have that look about them — and I have seen them carrying small caterpillars. But I have learned that most adult wasps lap up nectar when they can, and the caterpillars they carry back to their nests are to feed the next generation. I saw this one visiting several flowers of the Salvia Indigo Spires just as if it were a butterfly. It has no proboscis, so it can't sip nectar but it can lap it up with its tongue. Submit a picture. Copyright © 2004 Consolidated Publishing Co.