Wasp/Praying Mantis
Location: Glenwood Springs, Colorado
March 20, 2012 4:20 am
Bugman,
Just this past summer (2011), my fiancé and i were relaxing on the front patio of our house and noticed a strange ”wasp” crawling on the ground. Unfortunantly at that time we did not have our camera battery charged so we were not able to capture it. Thankfully, the next day we once again saw the insect on our front porch but this time, with our camera. I have never seen anything like this before. We live in the rocky mountains of Colorado. The ”wasp” was primarily dark amber and black. But did have orange and yellow features as well. Both of the times that we saw it, it was very reluctant to fly and much larger than most wasp i have seen before. PLease Help!
Signature: Taylor
Dear Taylor,
This Mantispid isn’t closely related to either Preying Mantids nor Wasps, despite the resemblance. It is actually classified with Lacewings and Antlions in the order Neuroptera.