u/Td998

ETA: Closest I’m seeing online is two-spotted scoliid wasp? Never heard of these before.

There are two spots in my yard where there are small hordes of these insects flying in circles just above the grass. Occasionally, they stop and sit and usually another one comes along and bumps into it. I’m very curious about what they are and what they’re doing, either feeding or mating I’m guessing. They are totally non-aggressive and completely ignore me when I walk up to them, if anything they sort of avoid me so it was difficult to get pictures.

As you can see, they have a black thorax but half of their abdomen is yellow and orange, which gets concealed at rest by blue/black wings. While flying they mostly look black with flashes of their orange butt if you look closely.

SE PA, USA. TIA!

It’s been growing in my garden bed. Initially, I thought it was something from the compost or a big carrot. At some point I decided it was a weed but it had been living in my garden bed for so long I felt sad to cut its life short as it was flowering. Today though, I noticed that the leaves smelled nice. My boyfriend thought they smelled something like parsley and rosemary, and its flowers are quite similar to plants in that family (e.g. anise, caraway). I wonder if it is edible after all. TIA.

Southeastern PA, USA.

ETA: I did plant carrots in this exact spot last year and left at least one in the ground because bugs were eating them.