The 'Hood in the Woods."

She concealed herself ten feet above the little patch of bare dirt and settled in to watch and wait. She stared intently, her senses focused, as she waited for the right moment. The hot sun beat down upon her back and the air was motionless as she watched as alert as a sentry. A stray breeze stirred up a puff of dust. Her eyes shifted, zoomed in, but she didn't move; it wasn't what she was waiting for.

The day wore on. Wisps of clouds crawled one at a time across the sky. The sun inched down and shadows smudged the landscape.  She remained as quiet and motionless as a statue, not the slightest twitch betrayed her presence.

A grain of dirt moved on the slope of a tiny mound.  Instantly she focused on the mound and crouched, sensing the moment was at hand. Another grain of dirt dislodged and moved perhaps a millimeter. A small clod of dirt rolled down the mound, then another, and another.  With the cunning of a born hunter she remained motionless, her shiny black body now tensed.

The mound bulged and tiny pebbles and grains of dirt cascaded down the slope.  A black and gray spider emerged. That’s what she was waiting for; still she didn’t move.  The spider stood motionless as if measuring its surroundings. She gathered her legs under her.

She was wise to the ways of the spider; it was still not the right time.  She waited for its next move. The spider took several tentative steps, stopped, and then broke for the safety of the surrounding brush.

She launched herself into the air and dove straight as an arrow. In the blink of an eye she was upon the spider. She wrapped her long legs around its body, arched her back and drove her stinger deep. The paralyzing poison took effect immediately and the spider curled into a ball, alive and breathing, but unable to move.

She dragged the spider back to his tunnel and pulled him down into his den. There she positioned herself and laid her eggs on his immobilized body. Later the eggs would hatch and the larvae would feed on the still living spider.

She crawled out of the tunnel. Using her powerful legs, she raked the dirt and clods into place and sealed the hole. Finally, the Black Spider-Wasp lifted her wings, caught the breeze, and flew away.