strange but
Location:  Wisconsin
August 29, 2010 6:36 pm
I found this bug in my living room in Southeast Wisconsin. It looks like a winged ant but has a super skinny thorax and seems indestructable. I actually burned it before taking this photo and it still was partly alive.
Josh

Unknown Wasp

Hi Josh,
We do not recognize your wasp, but we hope one of our readers will be able to assist in its identification.  We wonder perhaps if it might be the little seen male of a species that exhibits sexual dimorphism, like possibly the American Pelecinid, which is only represented by females on BugGuide.  At any rate, burning this unknown wasp constitutes unnecessary carnage in our book.  Many times people kill benign or beneficial insects because they look fearsome or for other unfathomable reasons.

Eric Eaton provides an identification
Hi, Daniel:
No, that is an ichneumon wasp, possibly in the subfamily Pimplinae:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/35501
Not all Pimplinae have long ovipositors.  This specimen appears to have a short one, or else it is broken.
Eric

3   I like This

Giant Ichneumon land on sternum
Location:  Fairfield, Maine USA
August 27, 2010 11:09 pm
My wife ad I were heading up to our front door when this thing swooped down onto me. It landed on my chest and after a few awkward pictures, it walked up my neck and flew of my ear. It was very long, I would have guessed 5-6 inches, including the ovipositor. Do you think this a Megarhyssa greenei?
Thanks,
James R

Giant Ichneumon

Hi James,
We have never read a good way to distinguish the members of the genus Megarhyssa from one another, other than that Megarhyssa atrata looks significantly different from the other three relatives.  This might be Megarhyssa greenei, though in our opinion, it seems to most closely resemble Megarhyssa macrurus, which you may view on BugGuide.

Giant Ichnuemon

0   I like This

What IS this?
Location:  Southern Vermont
August 26, 2010 8:43 pm
This insect was on my porch in July. It died shortly after I saw and photographed it. Any idea what it is??
KT

Giant Ichneumon

Hi KT,
We just posted another image of a different species of Giant Ichneumon in the genus Megarhyssa, but your individual, Megarhyssa atrata, is the species most often reproduced in identification guides and entomology texts.  The black body with the accent markings of yellow face, antennae and legs make this an unforgettable insect, but the truly distinctive feature is the five inch long ovipositor of the female.  The female uses her ovipositor to deposit her eggs in the stumps of diseased trees that are infested with the wood boring larvae of the Pigeon Horntail, Tremex columba (see BugGuide), and we frequently receive images of female Giant Ichneumons drilling into stumps.  You may read more about Megarhyssa atrata in our own archive and on BugGuide.  BugGuide indicates on the genus page that the common name Stump Stabber is sometimes used.  In August 2007, we selected Giant Ichneumons in the genus Megarhyssa as our Bug of the Month, and we have decided that since three years have passes, we are clear to feature it again as the Bug of the Month for September with your letter and photographs.

Giant Ichneumon

Hi Daniel,
Wow, that’s awesome! Thank you both for the thorough response, and for choosing to feature my photos!
What a fascinating insect that is! It’s strange that I didn’t find any photos when I was surfing, but I probably wan’t entering adequate identifying words in the search. That was the first one I’ve ever seen, and I haven’t seen another since. Are they common in Vermont? They must be somewhat reclusive, as I have ‘hawk eyes’ when it comes to insects and spiders and the like. I am both fascinated by and enamored with them!
Thanks again! I’m heading to your site now!
KT

Hi again KT,
They are not uncommon in Vermont, but like many insects, there may be a robust local population in an area, but seemingly identical conditions a mile away may have no individuals.

Addendum:  Giant Ichneumon Ovipositing
What kind of bug is this?

What kind of bug is this?
Location:  Warwick, Rhode Island
August 29, 2010 4:17 pm
These bugs just showed up and crawl all over the dead tree on the side of my house the long antenna looking thing seems to maybe suck something out of the tree! I have never seen these before and they look like they could be 2inches long some shorter some longer! Its the end of August so we are slowly going into fall.
Thanks, Dawn Bergeron

Hi Dawn,
This insect is actually depositing eggs into the tree, not sucking something out as you thought. Several days ago we decided to make the Giant Ichneumon our Bug of the Month for September 2010 so we included information on how the female oviposits her eggs in the wood of dead and dying trees that contain the burrowing larvae of the Pigeon Horntail.  The Giant Ichneumon is a parasitoid whose larvae feed solely on the larvae of the Pigeon Horntail.  Coincidentally, yesterday we posted an image of a female Pigeon Horntail, another impressive non-stinging member of the order that includes wasps, in the act of oviposition.  Though we wrote a lengthy response, we were not able to include images of the actual egg laying or oviposition process.  Your photos clearly illustrate the process of a female Giant Ichneumon laying eggs, though your species is different from the species in the Bug of the Month posting, which is Megarhyssa atrata.  We suspect your Giant Ichneumon is Megarhyssa macrurus. We are going to combine your letter and images with the previously selected letter to be a joint Bug of the Month for September 2010

Giant Ichneumon Ovipositing

1   I like This

Very Odd Looking Fly
Location:  East Moline, IL
August 11, 2010 11:19 pm
My co-worker had this insect come flying up to him in his office. He reluctantly captured it for me, and brought it to my office. I placed it in one of my special bug containers (I’m more inclined to find, research and keep spiders, but I like unusual bugs as well). I searched your site, but couldn’t find anything quite like it. Curious to see if you can figure out what it is. It was found on August 11, 2010, and our workplace is near the Mississippi River between IL and IA. It has what looks like an ovipositor that is nearly twice the length of its body.
Zee the Spider Guy

Giant Ichneumon

Hi Zee,
This parasitic hymenopteran is a Giant Ichneumon, Megarhyssa macrurus.

1   I like This