Today our neighbor found this critter on her tote bag. She got home from a jaunt to the mall and opened her mini-van sliding back door. And it was sitting on her tote bag. It's some kind of wasp, with a 4" long appendage off the back that they use to drill into trees, says Dr Science, aka Mr. SABLE. The neighbor was afraid to deal with it, and so I went with my camera, a container, a lid, and two assistants who are home from school for an in-service day (already! not even one month into the year!), to photograph and catch the specimen. It's now resting in the container on the porch.
I'm leaving lots of space so those who don't want to see won't have to.
You can still click away...
click to make it bigger!
9 comments:
It's so pretty! You don't get to see many bugs that close up, is the digger thing the long tail? (real technical here)
But...does it hurt? And by that I mean, does it sting you like a bee would?
Wasps - not my favorite, but I'm not afraid of pictures of them...
We had an "early release" day today. I was surprised by that, but I'm even more surprised by an inservice day.....
Not a big fan of the critters, but that photo is excellent.
Yeah your reaction to the inservice days is exactly how I felt about the New Year. Gah! School just STARTED!
Those can't nest in cars can they? For a time I had paper wasps nesting in my car.
What did Mr. Sable/Dr. S get his PhD in? I didn't think it was bug related was it??
The wasp is an ichneumonic wasp. Says Dr. Science/Mr SABLE.
Turtlegirl, they don't sting people. That one was hanging onto a nylon bag and would not unhook its little feet no matter how much I tugged on it with the stick. Even with all that manipulation, it just hung on and did nothing else.
Bezzie, Mr. SABLE's PhD was in a genetics lab, working on fruit flies. He did two post docs: one in a neuro lab on tobacco horn worms (optic nerve development) and the other a virology lab working with a virus that infects spruce bud worms. Now, he works in marketing for a biotech company.
oooh - now I know who to call if I have a bug-of-questionable-variety-and-or-skill! It's no comfort to realize that you don't live so far from me...as the wasp flies. :o) My japanese beetles appear to have gone (I think that means that their younglings are lounging around in the lawn preparing for next summer). And I've known someone who studied fruit flies' eyes - I think I remember their saying some have red eyes and some have black eyes.
Cool close up! I have some of those on my office window. I'm glad they're on the other side of the glass!
Wow, impressive. I can appreciate a good bug. My husband, on the other hand, gets really freaked out. I made him go to the butterfly exhibit at Olbrich the year they also had bugs and he would not go near the couple of giant (dead) bugs you could touch. I was more than happy to touch them.
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