Subject: Wasp/Bee/Strange Specimen?
Geographic location of the bug: Tumwater, Washington, near the Deschutes River
Date: 12/18/2018
Time: 01:12 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman: I caught this aggressive little guy alone when he landed on a plant near a riverbank in Tumwater, Washington – near Olympia. After hours of entomological research I cannot for the life of me find something with a thorax like this, but “furry”.
How you want your letter signed: out-of-options
Dear out-of-options,
Your identification research did not prove successful because, though it resembles a stinging insect, this is not a Bee nor a Wasp in the order Hymenoptera, but rather a predatory Robber Fly in the order Diptera and the family Asilidae. It sure looks to us like it might be the Bee-like Robber Fly Laphria columbica which is pictured on BugGuide and reported from Washington.