Bringing Home The Bacon

It's bad to be down the food chain.  This cicada is being transported to a den prepared by a cicada killer, and a sad fate awaits it; being eaten alive by cicada killer larvae.  The nest is in the ground, so you may wonder why this big wasp is climbing a tree.  The cicada may have to be transported a relatively great distance by this predator, so they will drag their prize up a tree in order to fly most of the way to the nest.  Cicada killers are not generally a threat to humans, and are solitary.  They have their own problems, being stalked by red velvet (cow killer) ants, which are actually big wingless wasps.  The cow killers do the same thing to cicada killers that they do to cicadas.  It's a jungle out there.