I wish we had them in the uk. lovely photo.

Very appealing and useful.

They are the only insect that can look over its shoulder

Amazing predator. Like SBG I wish we had them too.

They snatch and eat pollinators too as well as each other so in the end their numbers are really not enough to make a difference. The great French entomologist Henri Fabre wrote about the life cycle of this insect (as well as others) and it is a beautiful piece of literature.

They are very people friendly insects. I would let them crawl up my arm or hold them without fear of being stung or bitten and they'll look you straight in the eye.

I hear they replicate the fate of 'The Black Widow'. She eats his head off after and sometimes during the mating process. But this comes at the very end of their life cycle and is kind of beautiful when you really think about it. They giving up their lives for the next generation. She immediately expires after producing an egg sack which will hatch the following Spring.