large wasp-type bug with long ‘tail’
November 17, 2009
This bug came in when we opened our back door one evening a few nights ago. Sorry, my husband squished it. The envelope it’s sitting on is a business-sized (10 inch) envelope for size reference. It’s very dark or black with a long jointed looking body, black wings and the really long tail that totally creeps me out. 
Scaredy Cat
North Texas/DFW
Squashed Giant Ichneumon
Dear Scaredy Cat,
This is a female Giant Ichneumon, Megarhyssa atrata, and she is perfectly harmless. The tail, though it looks like a stinger, is actually an ovipositor. With her long ovipositor, the female Giant Ichneumon drills into diseased wood to lay an egg on the larva of a wood boring insect, the Pigeon Horntail.
after reading your site for over an hour the night that I posted, I learned the purpose of that long tail thingy. Wish we wouldn’t have squished her. It was fear-induced carnage. 
With 3 cats and 2 children she probably wouldn’t have lasted long anyway!
Thanks for responding and confirming what I found on your site. We also have great photos of a wooly caterpiller that looks like what the Japanese Monster Mothra was based upon. Can we just submit photos even when we know what the bug is?
Kim
Hi Kim,
You may submit photos, but please use our question form and provide your location. Also, please do not submit more than one species of insect per letter. We are very happy to hear you were able to make your identification without our assistance.
Ichneumon wasp
October 5, 2009
Dear Bugman, I am resubmitting this tiny wasp from july 30, 2009. After sending it to Bugguide, it was identified on Oct. 4, as Messatoporus rufiventris. I thought it ironic, that she should stand on the ISBN of an insect identification book. I have an old camera with no macro. So the photos aren’t the best. Thanks for looking.
Terry
Mound, MN
Ichneumon
Hi Terry,
Thanks so much for resubmitting your images of an Ichneumon after it has been properly identified on BugGuide.
Ichneumon
What the hell is this thing??
September 23, 2009
My uncle asked me to help him identify this insect. Picture taken today, Sept 23, 2009, in Hopkins MN. The tail end of this bug can fold out & fan out like a chinese fan and it looks like a left–bright green. The long probiscus’ off the back end of it were into the tree, not sure if it was eating something or putting eggs in or what.
Anne Rolli
Hopkins, MN
Giant Ichneumon
Hi Anne,
This is a Giant Ichneumon in the genus Megarhyssa. She is depositing eggs under the bark and the larvae will feed on wood boring larvae.
XL Gold Colored Flying Six-legged Black Tail Bug
September 20, 2009
I was startled, thrown back, shocked and subsequently frozen in my driver’s seat after I saw an insect on my windshield today that I have never seen before. It took me a second to gather myself and try to surmise whether the bug was inside the car or out. Once I gathered that I was safe as the bug was stuck to the outside of the windshield, I pulled over the side of the road to contend with the unknown beast at hand. I took a couple of pictures. The bug was about 5 inches long, excluding the long black antenna looking tail. It was gold/light brown colored, and it had wings. I believe that it had six legs.
Freaked Out
Homewood, IL (Northwest Illinois)
Giant Ichneumon on automobile windshield
Dear Freaked Out,
We love your chilling first hand account of your encounter with a Giant Ichneumon in the genus Megarhyssa. We want to allay your fears and assure you that the Giant Ichneumon will not harm you. What appears to be a stinger is the female’s ovipositor. She deposits eggs under the bark of trees infested with wood boring larvae. The larval Giant Ichneumon parasitizes the wood boring larvae.
Hello, Daniel
Thank you for taking the time to reply, and to reply so promptly, to my identification request. This is very interesting information that you shared. Upon your identification, I went online and did more research. I came across an excerpt that said Charles Darwin was amazed by these creatures as well. That long black ovipositor is frightening in appearance.
All the best to you,
Colleen
Long scorpion like tail.
September 20, 2009
This picture taken today, September 20, 2009 in the Northern reaches of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Iron River.
I think it is some sort of a wood borer that uses it’s long segmented tail to burrow deep under the bark of a tree and lay it’s eggs.
During the first attempt to take a picture of this bug it flew off but thankfully it is not a fast flyer and landed only a few yards from where it began.
Dick Boyd
Iron River, MI
American Pelecinid
Dear Dick,
We have posted several images of the American Pelecinid recently, but your photo shows the most detail. The female of the species, which is represented in your photograph, uses her long abdomen to lay her eggs underground near burrowing grubs of May Beetles. The larvae of the American Pelecinid then parasitize the beetle grubs.
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Posted 20 September 2009
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wood boring bug
September 18, 2009
I observed this bug on this tree for over an hour. We live in Worcester County, MA
We also live near a small lake.
JAG
Boylston, MA
Giant Ichneumon
Hi JAG,
You have been mislead. The Giant Ichneumon, Megarhyssa atrata, is not in the true sense of the word, a wood boring insect. This non-stinging wasp relative is a parasitic Hymenopteran. The female, like the individual in your photo, lays her eggs in trees that have been infested by Pigeon Horntail Larvae and other wood boring insects. The larval Giant Ichneumon feeds on the wood boring insects.
Please………What’s this bug?
September 15, 2009
Please………What’s this bug?
Your letter to the bugman Found these at a day care. Is this bug something to be worried about?
cstan — MN
St. Paul, MN
Giant Ichneumon
Dear cstan,
This is a harmless female Giant Ichneumon in the genus Megarhyssa. The long ovipositor cannot sting, and is used to lay eggs in wood infested by wood boring larvae of insects like the Pigeon Horntail. The Pigeon Horntail larvae are the prey of the larvae of the Giant Ichneumon.
Winged black bug with 2 inch hook-like thing
September 14, 2009
Dear Bugman,
I awoke this morning, and on my window screen I found this bug. It’s about 3 inches long, and black. It has a long, hooked appendage below its wings. It’s 6 segments, but possibly 7. The very tip is at an angle, but it’s only a millimeter or two, so I’m not sure if it’s another segment or just the end of the 6th. I’m not sure if it’s some type of stinger, because although the end is tapered, it doesn’t look very sharp. I found it at about 10:00 AM in Fargo, North Dakota today, so during the end of summer and fall is when this picture is from.
Scary Bug Girl
Fargo, North Dakota
American Pelecinid
Dear Scary Bug Girl,
This nonstinging wasp relative is an American Pelecinid. Its profile is very distinctive. The female of the species (your individual is a female) uses her long abdomen to deposit eggs underground near burrowing May Beetle Grubs that her larvae will feed upon. We love your photograph.
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Posted 14 September 2009
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looks like a flying scorpion
September 7, 2009
this fly landed at my camp table over the weekend in the Adirondack region of NY. I thought it immediately looked like a flying scorpion and looked it up online. There are scorpionflies, but this one doesn’t resemble that. Any ideas?
perplexed in the north country
Long Lake, Adirondacks, NY
American Pelecinid
Dear perplexed,
This is a parasitic Hymenopteran known as the American Pelecinid, Pelecinus polyturator. The pictured individual, like most individuals, is a female. The female American Pelecinid uses her long ovipositor to locate subterranean grubs from May Beetles and other Scarabs and lays an egg. The young wasp then feeds on the beetle grub, eventually killing it. Our new great obsession in the insect world is nonsexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis. The American Pelecinid males are quite rare, and most females reproduce without a mate. According to BugGuide: “In North American populations, males are rare, and reproduction is apparently largely by parthenogenesis (Brues, 1928). In tropical populations (or species), males are more abundant.“
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Posted 08 September 2009
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Black wasp with blue eyes
September 5, 2009
I found this black wasp in our chihuahua’s bed after it had apparently bitten or stung her. It was inside the house and seemed to prefer to crawl rather than fly as I had to chase it out of the bed to catch it. My initial instinct was to grab a paper towel and squish it since I did not want to be stung. My second reaction was to grab the camera. Luckily, it seems to be quite tough and only the abdomen was injured. From tip to tail, it is a little less than one half inch long. It has very tiny wings, about 3/16th of an inch long. I can not tell if it does or doesn’t have a stinger. It has striking deep blue eyes.
Tyson
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, USA
Ensign Wasp: Unnecessary Carnage
Dear Tyson,
This is an Ensign Wasp, probably Evania appendigaster. There is a photo on BugGuide that shows the same blue eyes. Since Ensign Wasps parasitize the egg capsules of cockroaches, they are quite effective in the control of what many people would agree is one of the more undesirable household intruders. We are nearly certain that Ensign Wasps are incapable of stinging. If one does a bit of math, the single Ensign Wasp that you killed might have prevented hundreds of cockroaches from infesting your house by destroying eggs. This single Ensign Wasp might then have prevented hundreds times hundreds (or tens of thousands) of Cockroaches in the second generation had the first generation all lived. Would you like us to do the math for the third generation of Cockroaches that would have been prevented from existing? Because of fear, all too often people have the inclination to kill and ask questions later, be that regarding the Unnecessary Carnage of arthropods or the irrational invasion of foreign countries. We hope the next time an Ensign Wasp finds its way into your home, which it most likely did because of the available food source for its progeny, you will allow it to search for prey without intervention.
What is this parasite on the cricket?
September 1, 2009
We found a wild cricket with the lump on its side. We were not sure if it was a growth or a parasite. Later I found another one and removed the lump. It appears to have legs and was attatched at only one point. The pictures show one with the parasite attatched. The other shows the underside of the parasite.
David and Deanna Brown
Clark County Indiana, in a garden.
Cricket with Parasite
Hi David and Deanna,
About a year ago, we posted a similar image and surmised that it might be a Tachinid Fly that had parasitized the cricket in question and linked to an online article on Tachinids parasitizing Crickets. Eric Eaton then provided us with this information: “Hi, Daniel: The object protruding from the deceased cricket is indeed a fly puparium (the rigid last larval ’skin’ enclosing a fly pupa). It could certainly be a tachinid fly, but there are also other flies that are parasitic on crickets, especially some members of the flesh fly family (Sarcophagidae). I’d personally be hard-pressed to identify even the adult fly once it emerges, though a dipterist (fly expert) could. Eric“ We will contact Eric Eaton to see if he agrees. The most common cricket parasite written about online is a Horsehair Worm.
Parasite taken from Cricket
Eric Eaton offers a suggestion: Rhopalosomatid Wasps
Daniel:
The cricket parasite is probably not a tachinid. See this:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/71173
Wish I had more time to expand on this, but I don’t at the moment.
Eric
wood wasp?
August 20, 2009
Found at 8700′ elevation on the summit of Robinson Peak in Washington’s Pasayten Wilderness. Ichneumon? Wood Wasp?
\Tvashtar
Summit of Robinson Peak in N central WA
Ichneumon Wasp
Hello again Tvashtar,
Your gorgeous images are monopolizing our postings today. This is not a Wood Wasp. It is a Braconid Wasp. Braconid Wasps and Ichneumons are classified together in the superfamily Ichneumonoidea of parasitic Hymenopterans. We believe your specimen is in the genus Atanycolus, but according to BugGuide: “Next to impossible to identify this genus from images alone, however it is one of the more common genera in the subfamily. Identification of images on this guide page are NOT absolute!” It might also be in the subfamily Agathidinae, also represented on BugGuide.
Correction by Eric Eaton
August 29, 2009
Daniel:
… Thanks for the prompt. I do have a couple other corrections:
The “braconid wasp” of August 20 is actually an ichneumon wasp, though I don’t know even which subfamily it belongs to. Ichneumons are a real tough group even with specimens in hand….
… I’ll keep checking for other “errors,” but you are doing a bang-up job, Daniel. Give my best to Lisa, keep in touch:-)
Eric
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