On a trip to Belize, Central America in 2004 I found the three pictured wasps sitting completely immobile for several minutes. They were each about five centimetres long.

I later showed the picture to some people in a local village and they told me they were Strangler Wasps, that I was very lucky not to get stung because their venom constricts your throat, sometimes killing young children. I saw first hand how upset the people of the village got when one came around, they grabbed sticks, chased the creature down and killed it.

A quick web search for the term 'strangler wasp' brings up nothing.

This is a common gecko sort of an animal we find in India. I have seen these scamper among trees. The local name for these reptiles is the same as that for a chameleon.When I was trying to describe the creature to a friend I suddenly realised I did not know what it was actually called.