(no subject)

[eirias]

We saw what looked like an amazingly large wasp outside our apartment today.




Any ideas what it might be? The usually-informative bugguide.net couldn't help me here (but maybe I just didn't know what to search for). Check out the ovipositor! -- at a guess I'd say the insect was about 4 inches long altogether.

Comments

[supercarrot.livejournal.com]

holy crap!

my guess is that she's probably some sort of potter wasp.

she's beautiful!

[evil-fizz.livejournal.com]

It looks vaguely mosquito-ish to me

[gieves.livejournal.com]

I actually know what it is!! It's an Ichneumon (http://whatsthatbug.com/ichneumons.html), a wasp relative. For what it's worth, odds are that your giant wasp probably doesn't sting, but just looks ominous. :)

(I discovered 'What's that Bug' when looking for the name of the Spiny/Spinybacked Orb Weaver (http://whatsthatbug.com/spiders7.html). It's not the most technical of sites, but I find it fascinating.)

[eirias.livejournal.com]

Thank you! That's awesome!
Yeah, at first I thought that the long bit was a stinger, and vaguely wondered how it would work, mechanically speaking... but a little bit of reading about wasps made it clear that it was actually an ovipositor. But I didn't realize until reading that site that such wasps don't sting at all!

[eirias.livejournal.com]

That Spiny Orb Weaver is AMAZING!
Wow!

[gieves.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? A friend posted a picture of one that she saw in Florida this summer and I thought it was the most glorious looking spider that I'd ever seen. It's like one of those trendy spiky backpacks, only alive. ;-)

[sagittalbreast.livejournal.com]

When I lived in Florida, I saw bun-loads of the spiny ones. They would conveniently set up shop on the lower branches of trees, next to sidewalks (for my benefit of course). On foggy mornings they were also kind enough to sprinkle some water droplets on the webs to make them more visible.

Such nice little people.

I wish galapagos tortises spun webs.

[gieves.livejournal.com]

Pretty! I love dewy webs. I do so like spiders, except for the occasional biters that make (not makes!) their way into my house.

My mind stutters a little when I consider the potential size of a tortoise-web, the associated prospect of a carnivorous tortoise, and the unexpected nimbleness that the tortoises would have to summon to actually make the webs. It could be like something out of a bad b-reel science fiction flick: our protagonists get to the islands, only to be trapped by GIANT WEBS OF DOOM.

And then eaten by tortoises.

[eirias.livejournal.com]

Mwa ha haa! I will trap you all in my WEB OF DOOM.

[sagittalbreast.livejournal.com]

I'm all for humans being eaten in a most horrific manner. We all deserve to die (I'm not in a good mood).

A few months ago, I finished "The Enduring Shore" by Paul Schneider. On pages 262 and 263, he details the devastation inflicted on the Galapagos Islands by New England whalers in the 19th Century.

The sailors would go ashore, capture as many tortises as possible, wear them like backpacks with special straps and bring them aboard. They would keep them on deck (as long as the weather wasn't too cold), or stow them down below.

They could live for a year without food or water. They were often cooked in their own shells.

Maybe if they could knit something, they could have a chance against the bipeds. . .snares, nets, traps. . .Why couldn't the whalers pick on those damn finches and their damn beaks.