Subject: Fairy Disguised As Bug?
Location: Massachusetts
May 20, 2014 9:25 am
Though I am a thirty one year old adult I often try to keep the “fantastic” alive in my imagination. As I was contemplating the *finally* nice weather in Massachusetts, (it is nearing the end of May) I began to daydream falling leaves and flying dandelion seeds as fairies in disguise. When I was interrupted by technology, (iPhone alert) I looked down and this little guy was chilling out on my phone. His wings were delicate and lacey, like a cicada’s, and his face was that of an ant’s, pinchers and all. His head turned like a praying mantis, and as I was taking a picture, it tilted it’s head up and looked right at me! It was this, sort of intelligent maneuver, that made me giggle at the idea – hey, perhaps this is a fairy in disguise! I have looked for two hours on the Internet to try and identify my ephemeral friend, to no avail. Please help! I’d really like to know what kind of big this is!
Signature: Liz
Hi Liz,
We hate to dissipate the illusion that the spring day helped to create regarding your interaction with this insect, but we believe, despite the blurriness of the image, that we have properly identified it as a Sawfly. It resembles this Conifer Sawfly in the genus Neodiprion that is posted to bugGuide.