Isodontia elegans, also known as the elegant grass-carrying wasp, is a species of solitary, nest-provisioning, thread-waisted wasp in the family Sphecidae that hunts orthopterans (grasshoppers, crickets, bush crickets, locusts, etc.).
I. elegans is described as having a generally black-color body, rusty-red to yellowish abdomen, and see-through wings with some tinting.[1] They were originally considered to be a species of western and southern North America, but have been found in the northeastern corner of the continent in increasing numbers. They seem to use pre-existing holes created by other insects for their nests and then outfit them with "finely chewed fibers of dead weeds and grass." The grass serves as a defensive barrier at one end of the nest; it keeps parasites from entering while the larvae feed on the paralyzed insects which have been stored in the nursery.[2]
Isodontia elegans may be attracted to same kind of nest holes that appeal to blue orchard mason bees.