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Wasp??
Dear Bugman,
You have a great site. Wish I had found it years ago… I live in eastern Colorado and have never seen wasps like this before. I found two, very large wasps(?) on the ground at the base of a dead tree. One flew off, slowly circled and landed on the same tree and began crawling down, dragging and jabbing it’s "tail/stinger" along the bark. Is it laying eggs? Searching out insects? The other wasp was dead- It has a body length of 1 3/8" (it was the smaller of the two wasps) with 1/4" antenna and tail/stinger. It has the yellow and black stripes on its abdomen. It doesn’t have the common thin wasp waist. I hope you can tell me what these are? It was great fun to watch and photograph. Thank you so much for your time and attention,
CC

Hi CC,
This is a Horntail in the Family Siricidae. The most commonly depicted species is the Pigeon Horntail, Tremex columba, but your specimen is marked differently. We are relatively sure it is the genus Tremex, but are unsure of the species. Horntails are related to wasps but do not sting. That stinger-like ovipositor is used to deposit eggs under bark so the wood boring larvae will have a food source.

Ed. Note: We later contacted Eric Eaton who wrote back: “It IS Tremex columba. The book “Bagging Big Bugs” lists it for the Rocky Mountain states, and the image in there matches yours perfectly. “

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