I saw a very weird bug - a bee with a backend of a dragonfly?

[tigereye]

Anyone know what that is? I had never seen one like that before. It was enjoying the flowers in my planters.

[Heidi]

What's that bug?

Check here, tigereye: www.whatsthatbug.com

[tmooses]

1. Did those flowers have buds?

n/t

[tigereye]

3. ummm, no

bunch of annuals. Although they might have been on the roses....

[Odonata]

2. Did it look like any of these

Ichneumon wasp:

http://images.google.com/images?q=ichneumon%20wasp&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=wi

[tigereye]

4. maybe the great goldendigger wasp?

bee head, really long elongated back end... much bigger than I have ever seen.

[Beware the Beast Man]

5. This has been a good summer for strange bugs.

Here's a Canadian dobsonfly hanging out on my former coworkers window a couple weeks ago:

[tigereye]

6. yeah, I remember that!

wish I had thought to take a pic. It was a huge bee like creature with a very elongated back end. Never seen anything like it!

:hi:

[TimeChaser]

19. Dobsonfly larva are worse

Creepy

[Rainbowreflect]

7. I saw a really beautiful bug this morning that I have never

seen before. It had wings with that were mainly a pretty greenish, turquoise with gold & black spots.

[XemaSab]

8. Had one of these the other night

Ten-lined June Beetle

[tigereye]

10. that is a very funky bug!

[XemaSab]

11. that's what I said

I'd never seen antennae like that before.

mike_c is an entymologist, and he hooked me up on the ID.

[AntiCoup2K4]

13. Is that a bug, or a really tiny chicken??

:crazy:

[caty]

9. Do insects date

outside of their species?:shrug:

[tigereye]

12. that was my question!

:)

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. Dunno. But I saw something that was either a bee or a humming bird

It looked a bit like both, actually

[bettyellen]

18. those are freaky moths ....

i had them in my yard last month.
wait, i'll get a picture.


http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/conmag/2001/06/10.htm

some moths are pretty freaky alright.

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

15. Did it look like this?

The Cicada Killer, Sphecius speciosus, is a large solitary wasp. A female digs a burrow and provisions it with cicadas. The cicadas are often larger than the Cicada Killer. She stings the cicada oftne in a tree, and then flies down toward her nest while carrying the large cicada. If she does not reach the burrow, she climbs another tree lugging the cicada and then attemps again to fly to the burrow. The cicada is only paralyzed by the wasp and once the cicada is buried an egg is layed. When the larva hatches, it feeds on the still living cicada, a source of fresh meat.

I"ve seen a few of these, they are one large nasty looking wasp.

[tigereye]

17. no

it was as if it had a weird tail on it... although the more I look at pix, the more I think it was some type of wasp.

[bicentennial_baby]

16. calling Mike C., DU resident entomologist!

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[mike_c]

21. checking in....

Nothing rings a bell from the description, though. Something like this, maybe? These are ichneumonid wasps:

[tigereye]

22. well, the pic of the great goldedigger wasp looks about right

thanks, it was the oddest thing I have ever seen. Unless it was some rabidly different bugs mating as they searched for nectar...

[EstimatedProphet]

20. Could this be it?

Sawfly
Members of this family are known as sawflies and the larvae are commonly call spitfires. Sawflies are the most primitive of the Hymenoptera and do not have the characteristic wasp waist which is seen in ants and wasps. These insects are called sawflies because the female is equipped with a saw-like ovipositor, which is used for sawing slits in plant material into which she lays her eggs.