Blue-Winged Wasps Mating

It was a surprise, having known Blue-Winged wasps only as solitary creatures that visit our wildflowers in the backyard, to see hundreds of them congregate in a Princeton University countyard, roaming about a grassy courtyard just above the ground. Some websites state that the males and females do a figure eight-shaped mating dance. Others suggest that the males are cruising the grass waiting for a newly mature female to emerge from the ground. They then converge on the female and compete for a chance to mate. When not engaged in this frenetic ritual, they spend their time alone on flowers, easily identified by their orange abdomen and bluish wings.