Frosty Cricket
Jeremiah sent this in a couple months ago. I haven’t got a clue what it is. He has this to say about it:
“I think it’s kind of cool looking, and at the same time looks Photoshopped, but it isn’t!”
So, yeah; he doesn’t know either.
I see wings back there, and a really long dangly bit on her bu–on her posterior. (Let’s not start that again.) Ovipositor, maybe? Is this some species of wasp that overwintered inside the house? Or maybe some kind of mutant cricket?
Either way, it’s a gorgeous photo, Jeremiah. I’m tentatively filing it under wasps–no, wait.
Hmm.
Look at the antennae. They’re straight. They don’t show any fork or bend; this is more common with crickets and katydids and somewhat rare with wasps. Okay, change of plan. I’m tentatively filing it under crickets. Hopefully someone will jump right in and prove me wrong. That seems plenty likely, too; that thing doesn’t even jumping legs like a proper cricket or gr’opper. Any takers?
Thanks, Jer!
Slowly getting the site back onto an even keel. It's nice to get back into the old posting rhythm.
Kestralyn said,
May 14, 2008 @ 7:35 am
I hate to post this and then have it show up, but currently, there’s no image (9:37am EDT) — just a busted link.
David Brady said,
May 14, 2008 @ 10:24 am
Thanks, Kestralyn! I had indeed posted screwed-up HTML. I had originally decided to call this post “Frosty Wasp.” I named the images accordingly and set up the HTML. Then I changed the name, changed the images, and updated the HTML–or so I thought. I got the right HTML in the RSS feed, but not in the post. Thanks for pointing it out–I get e-mailed when people post comments, and this brought it to my attention. Thanks!
tceisele said,
May 14, 2008 @ 10:31 am
Well, I can’t see the picture yet, but ichneumon and braconid wasps (a) frequently have long and impressive-looking ovipositors, (b) come in a few thousand species, some of which look pretty freakish, and (c) the ones I’ve seen have straight antennae. We’ll just have to wait to see the picture to see how far off I am on this.
JFargo said,
May 14, 2008 @ 10:32 am
I’m definitely no bug expert, and have absolutely no idea what this thing was that was inside my home, but looking at it I definitely thought it was something capable of stinging me. Sure, looking at the picture that looks more like an ovipositor, but at the time all I could think was “Holy crap! That would HURT!”
It did this “wing flick” thing that I can only recall seeing wasps do, so I assumed it was a wasp-like bug.
Any pros out there that can ID this thing?
And thank you for the kind words; my ego barely fits out the door now.
tceisele said,
May 14, 2008 @ 10:43 am
Aaaaannnnddd, of course, I posted that comment just as David fixed the link so we could see the picture. I stand by my previous statement - it’s either an ichneumon wasp, or a braconid wasp. These are the ones that lay eggs in their victims, causing their slow, painful, and gruesome demise as the little wasp grubs slowly devour the not-quite-vital-enough organs over a period of weeks. I ran into the idendification problem with these just a couple of months back, the folks on Bug Guide generally don’t want to go out on a limb on these IDs, because you need to be able to see details of wing venation and how the legs connect to the body just to be able to tell the braconid family from the ichneumon family, never mind getting down to even the genus level.
Luckily, the victims of these wasps are other arthropods, not humans. Although, Geoffrey Landis used them as inspiration for an SF short story, “The Singular Habits of Wasps”. It included Sherlock Holmes, aliens, Jack the Ripper, and a brief cameo by H. G. Wells. Great story.