Subject:  What is this blue thin but large looking beetle
Geographic location of the bug:  Santa Clarita CA
Date: 09/03/2018
Time: 12:30 AM EDT
Your letter to the bugman:  Can you identify? About 3+ inches long and on the “slender” vs. full beetle shape
How you want your letter signed:  Kat

Steel Blue Cricket Hunter

Dear Kat,
This is not a Beetle.  It is a Steel Blue Cricket Hunter, Chlorion aerarium, a Wasp in the family Sphecidae.  According to BugGuide:  “Although generally not closely associated with humans, they are found wherever their hosts (Gryllus crickets) are found, which could include close proximity to homes.”  We believe “3+ inches long” is an exaggeration, as BugGuide states:  “~25 mm.”

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Subject:  Regular visitor to mountain mint
Geographic location of the bug:  SW Indiana
Date: 08/19/2018
Time: 10:40 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman:  Would appreciate an ID on this large insect visiting our mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum) plants
How you want your letter signed:  Paul

Thread-Waisted Wasp

Dear Paul,
This is a Thread-Waisted Wasp in the family Sphecidae, but we are having trouble identifying its species.  It looks similar to individuals in the genus Sphex pictured on BugGuide, including the Great Golden Digger Wasp, but its abdominal color and white facial and thoracic markings are quite different.  Perhaps one of our readers will provide assistance.

Thanks! I found a Sphex habenus that was close but am not 100% on that ID.

That is the same species that Cesar Crash commented regarding.

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Subject:  Friend or Foe?
Geographic location of the bug:  Pateros , WA
Date: 08/13/2018
Time: 06:16 PM EDT
Your letter to the bugman:  This guy was moving among the flowering herbs at edge of garden this weekend.  He looks formidable with extremely long back legs.   What is he?
How you want your letter signed:  Charlene

Great Golden Digger Wasp

Dear Charlene,
This large, impressive wasp is a Great Golden Digger Wasp, a solitary species that is not aggressive toward humans.  Was it moving among the flowering herbs like it was more interested in the flowers or like it was searching for something?  This is a pollinating species that feed on nectar as an adult, but it is carnivorous, but helpless, as a larva.  The female Great Golden Digger Wasp hunts for Katydids among the foliage and when she locates one, she stings it to paralyze it and then drags it back to her subterranean nest as food for her brood.  We vote “friend.”

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