Friday: 31 August 2007
I haven’t been doing intensive arthropod searches in the last few days, but have run across a pair that were just begging to have their photos taken and blogged. I have only begun to identify these, but was struck by the very nice coloration of the first one and the pretty eyes and face of the second one.
This one was one of a number that were flying and hovering within a foot or two of the ground in the deep woods, only occasionally landing. At first I thought they were yellowjackets, as the hovering back and forth behavior very closely resembled that, and started looking about for a nest hole. Once I saw one alight I realized they weren’t yellowjackets at all.
Judging from the prominent, short ovipositor it’s probably some kind of Horntail. Horntails are members of a nontaxonomic group that includes wood wasps and sawflies, so it could be one of those instead. Within bugguide’s pages of horntail images I haven’t found anything that looks like this goldenboy (or girl). A very attractive insect, though, with its golden translucent eyes, but if it’s horntail it is probably destructive to trees. It uses that ovipositor to penetrate into tree bark and lay its eggs, and the larvae then feed on the soft tissues of the bark until they emerge. Not only will they go after living trees, but also wood siding on houses.
BTW - you get a lot of Harry Potter references when you search on “horntail”!
This one was scurrying about the tomato plants, so was difficult to get in good focus. It was dragging and posturing its abdomen in a very odd way, but otherwise it seemed healthy. Of course my immediate inclination is to label it a wasp, but I’ve been burned on wasp mimics that were actually flies before! Still, the eye shape and length of antennae are more hymenopteran than dipteran. And its behavior was predatory - it did appear to be searching the stems and leaf top and undersides. That would probably eliminate it as a sawfly or woodwasp. So at the moment I’m leaning toward some kind of sphecid wasp, although it doesn’t have much of a thread-waist. And I’m not seeing those red legs on a black body anywhere.
And a thumbnail to the rear view:
This one was one of a number that were flying and hovering within a foot or two of the ground in the deep woods, only occasionally landing. At first I thought they were yellowjackets, as the hovering back and forth behavior very closely resembled that, and started looking about for a nest hole. Once I saw one alight I realized they weren’t yellowjackets at all.
Judging from the prominent, short ovipositor it’s probably some kind of Horntail. Horntails are members of a nontaxonomic group that includes wood wasps and sawflies, so it could be one of those instead. Within bugguide’s pages of horntail images I haven’t found anything that looks like this goldenboy (or girl). A very attractive insect, though, with its golden translucent eyes, but if it’s horntail it is probably destructive to trees. It uses that ovipositor to penetrate into tree bark and lay its eggs, and the larvae then feed on the soft tissues of the bark until they emerge. Not only will they go after living trees, but also wood siding on houses.
BTW - you get a lot of Harry Potter references when you search on “horntail”!
This one was scurrying about the tomato plants, so was difficult to get in good focus. It was dragging and posturing its abdomen in a very odd way, but otherwise it seemed healthy. Of course my immediate inclination is to label it a wasp, but I’ve been burned on wasp mimics that were actually flies before! Still, the eye shape and length of antennae are more hymenopteran than dipteran. And its behavior was predatory - it did appear to be searching the stems and leaf top and undersides. That would probably eliminate it as a sawfly or woodwasp. So at the moment I’m leaning toward some kind of sphecid wasp, although it doesn’t have much of a thread-waist. And I’m not seeing those red legs on a black body anywhere.
And a thumbnail to the rear view:
