Wasp or Dragonfly?
July 19, 2009
While hiking around in the Umatilla National Forest near the Washington/Oregon border, the wife and I stumbled upon this little guy. Luckily the wings were still damp and it was unable to fly away. It was about 3-3 1/2 inches in length and as you can see it just seems exotic.
Peter H.
Umatilla National Forest about 25 miles south of Pomeroy WA

Giant Ichneumon

Hi Peter,
Our blood pressure is a bit high right now since we just got done posting our Sixth Nasty Reader Award.  We really wanted to send a nice response after dealing with that.  This is a Giant Ichneumon, most likely Megarhyssa nortoni, as evidenced by images posted to BugGuide.  Giant Ichneumons are non-stinging relatives of wasps.  Your photo is of a female whose lengthy ovipositor is barely visible in the photo.  The female Giant Ichneumon uses her lengthy ovipositor to deposit her eggs in dead and dying wood that is riddled with wood boring larvae.  The larval Giant Ichneumon then feeds on the wood boring insect.

Horse Hair Tail Insect
Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 5:49 PM
These weird looking bugs are hanging around tree stumps, which have many holes in them. I don’t know if these insects made the holes or if they are trying to lay eggs in them, or get at the bugs in the dead stumps. The tail is almost like a strand of horse hair, about 4 inches long. The head, front legs and tentacles are bright yellow. It has a narrow body (black) about 1 1/2 inches in length and the wings are purple in color, 1 inch in length. As you can see in one of the pictures, the tail turns into a light green circular thing and the tail looks like it is rolled up in it. Then it will lose this thing and again have the horse hair like tail again. They also can fly. What the heck are these things?
Linda Mueller
St. Paul, Minnesota

Giant Ichneumon

Good Evening Linda,
You have Giant Ichneumons, Megarhyssa atrata, non-stinging relatives of wasps.  Giant Ichnuemons parasitize the larvae of wood boring insects like the Pigeon Horntail.  The female Giant Ichneumons locate the grubs deep inside the wood, and then use their stinger-like ovipositor to deposit an egg inside the tunnel inhabited by the larva.  When the egg hatches, the larval Giant Ichneumon locates the wood boring larva and parasitizes it. The holes you saw were probably produced when the wood boring larvae emerged as adults, or possibly by the Giant Ichneumon when it emerged.

Giant Ichneumon

Striped antenna scavenger
Sun, May 3, 2009 at 8:09 PM
Hi Bugman,
I was in local park and saw this bug running around over leaves. It was moving its antennas over everything it ran over like it was trying to feel and detect food. I had never seen a bug quite like this and was wondering what it was. I scared it at one point and it flew away. Thanks and keep up the good work.
Inquiring Mind
Cary, NC

Ichneumon Wasp

Dear Inquiring Mind,
WE are relatively certain that this is a Spider Wasp in the family Pompilidae. According to BugGuide: “Adults are usually found on flowers or on the ground searching for prey.” This seems to accurately describe the behavior you witnessed. The doubt we are having has to do with the wings. BugGuide indicates: “Wings not folded flat on top of abdomen” and your specimen appears to have flat folded wings. There are 8 pages of genera listed on BugGuide, and our quick search did not provide any matches with striped antennae. We hope to get some input from Eric Eaton on this ID, and perhaps some reader can also provide a species or genus name for us.

Ichneumon Wasp

Correction: Wed, 6 May 2009 17:36:40 -0700 (PDT)
Daniel:
The “spider wasp” is actually an ichneumon wasp:-)  Fooled ya!  Hey, everybody has been fooled by mimicry like this at one time or another.  Spider wasps very rarely have banded antennae, but the tips of the antennae are sometimes a different color.  Many ichneumons and sawflies do have banded antennae, however.
Eric

Redish-brown flying insect, looks somewhat like a wasp, but with no stiner or visible mandibles
Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 4:43 AM
We live in the Puget Sound area in Washington state on Whidbey Island. It rains often, is overcast when it isn’t raining, and it is to be expected that there’ll be bugs trying to enter the home to escape the water.
We found this bug in our hallway after walking the dog around 4 in the morning. It’s been unusually cold for this time of year, and has been raining for the past 3 days.
We captured the bug between a cup and saucer and took this photo, afterwards we released it into the bushes outside the apartment.
Apartment Dweller
Whidbey Island, Puget Sound Area of Washington State

Ichneumon

Dear Apartment Dweller,
This is an Ichneumon.  Ichneumons are a group of parasitic wasps that prey upon different insects.  This may be a male Ichneumon which would explain the lack of a stinger.  Many female Ichneumons, especially in the genus Megarhyssa,  have highly developed ovipositors, some up to five inches long.  These organs are needed to locate wood burrowing larvae that serve as food for the young.  Other Ichneumons have much smaller ovipositors.  This is a large confusing group of insects, and we rarely attempt to make specific species or genus identification attempts.

Pimpla Instigator?
Sun, Dec 7, 2008 at 4:03 PM
We found 5 or 6 of these guys in our house over the past 24 hours. It’s a 6 legged insect with wings and a longish ’stinger’ tail. I took a picture and found it to have very large ‘eyes’ and long antennae. We’re wondering if this bug is common (we’ve never seen it before) and if we should be worried about it with our pets? Any help would be appreciated!
Jason
Northern Ontario, Canada

Ichneumon, probably subfamily Pimplinae

Hi Jason,
While we cannot say for sure that this is Pimpla instigator, we are fairly confident that it is an Ichneumon in the Subfamily Pimplinae. BugGuide does not provide much information on this subfamily, but Ichneumons are parasitic on insects and other arthropods, and will not harm humans or their pets.

Unknown Bug, Sorry
Hi WTB,
you hear it all the time, however, I’d just like to say what a fantastic library of data you have, really outstanding. I have searched the majority of your database, various other websites, and a book that I have, however, I cannot for the life of me find this creature. It looks like several things, but I’m not going to say what to make a fool of myself if they are way off the mark haha. Could you please help? This photo was taken in an area filled with overgrown plants, moist ground and no human interference. The creature is shown on the leaf of a gipsywort plant, a full sized plant specimen (or near full size).
Taken 10/09/2008 in Newport, South Wales, United Kingdom.
Dont mind ?

Hymenopteran

Dear Dont Mind,
We know this is the second time you have submitted this query, and we don’t know the answer. We haven’t the time to research at the moment, but we hope by posting your letter and photo, someone may write in with an answer. All we know for certain is that this is a Hymenopteran, the order that contains wasps and bees. We suspect it may be a wood wasp or sawfly, but we are not certain.

Karl provided us with a comment identifying this as an Ichneumon but he was unable to link to an image of Amblyteles armatorius. When we did a web search on the name he provided, we encountered this matching image.