I have found a couple of these solitary wasps/hornets checking out the area. I am wondering if I could get help with an ID. Its markings are not like European hornet. I could not find anything online. The area is northeast Georgia next to Carolina.
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"15th Member" is really good at identifying insects, so I will defer to her. It looks like this one has seen it's last days, so can you get us measurements?
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Quote from: Seeb on April 18, 2020, 01:15:29 PM
"15th Member" is really good at identifying insects, so I will defer to her. It looks like this one has seen it's last days, so can you get us measurements?
Thank you for the vote of confidence, Aurelia. :smile:
Okay. I'm having some trouble with this one. Wasps can be hard to ID because people don't really care about them, so ID websites like BugGuide don't have a lot of pictures and information to go on. I'm pretty sure it's from the family Vespidae, the family that contains hornets and yellowjackets, just by the way it looks and its size. My gut says it's some type of hornet, something similar to a European hornet, but you are right, the coloration isn't correct for a European hornet. Have you seen any living ones? What were they doing? Do you know where their nest is? Any additional information you can tell me? I'll keep digging in the meantime.
could it be the great golden digger wasp?? They can get up in lengths of .90 inches
Here's a link:
https://www.insectidentification.org/insect-description.asp?identification=Great-Golden-Digger-Wasp
Ever notice how we beeks like a challenge
Quote from: Seeb on April 18, 2020, 02:48:36 PM
Ever notice how we beeks like a challenge
Always!
Quote from: Seeb on April 18, 2020, 02:48:36 PM
could it be the great golden digger wasp?? They can get up in lengths of .90 inches
No, I don't think so. The Sphex wasps are very delicate looking, whereas the insect that Leo posted is chunkier. I love Great Golden Diggers, by the way. There was one nesting under our washline last year. I got to see her digging out her nest, which was awesome. The solitary wasps are so docile, unlike the social ones. Kind of like bees actually. :wink:
I love having the help! I have seen a number of them and they all are usually hovering over the ground inspecting things and really paying no heed to my presence. If you have been around cicada killers, then it acts similar to those.
I have been trying to find its nest. I am assuming it is a burrowing solitary wasp of some kind. The internet is failing me with anything I look up though.
All my life these have been called "Good News" bee. It is not a bee but that's what the old timers called it before I was an old timer.
Quote from: Leoj900 on April 18, 2020, 03:06:25 PM
I love having the help! I have seen a number of them and they all are usually hovering over the ground inspecting things and really paying no heed to my presence. If you have been around cicada killers, then it acts similar to those.
I have had the pleasure of witnessing cicada killers. They are quite the impressive predator insect!
Quote from: Leoj900 on April 18, 2020, 03:09:56 PM
I have been trying to find its nest. I am assuming it is a burrowing solitary wasp of some kind. The internet is failing me with anything I look up though.
Same here regarding the internet. I'm personally not thinking along the lines of a solitary wasp. Most solitary wasps are not shaped like this, they are typically more slender. Honestly to me this looks like a hornet worker, but I can't for the life of me figure out what species. Here's a European hornet:
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Your insect looks VERY similar to this, it's basically just a different color. There is some color variation amongst hornets, kind of like there is with honey bees, but I think that the color variation between the Euro hornet and yours to too great to be the same species. But the European hornet is the only giant hornet in the US to my knowledge, except the Asian hornet that has just invaded the Pacific Northwest. It could be a large species of yellow jacket, like the bald-faced hornet, which is not a true hornet, but nothing I look at in that genus matches it either. Hmm. . . .
It definitely most closely resembles the European hornet. The colors are very off though. I just was watching one surveying the side of our house. I might have to take a walk in the woods and see if I can find a nest. That would prove it for me. Thank you for your help.
This is the closest I have found to what it looks like. It is definitely not a reputable source though.
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-74674-1.html
I've had hornets make a nest in my attic. The vent screen had worn out [my house is 110 years old] and they had gotten in that way. So if you've got an attic access you might want to poke your head in and see.
This is the closest I have found to what it looks like
could it be possible that the colors of your specimen could have darkened with death
Quote from: Leoj900 on April 18, 2020, 04:10:55 PM
This is the closest I have found to what it looks like. It is definitely not a reputable source though.
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-74674-1.html
Oh man, whatever that thing is, that is it. But as you say, could be easily mislabeled.
Quote from: Leoj900 on April 18, 2020, 03:58:47 PM
It definitely most closely resembles the European hornet. The colors are very off though. I just was watching one surveying the side of our house. I might have to take a walk in the woods and see if I can find a nest. That would prove it for me. Thank you for your help.
Oh you are welcome. As I'm sure you can tell, I love identifying insects, and really any type of critter. Now there is a possibility, which I'm hesitant to mention because it's a easy way out, but it is possible that it's a species or subspecies that hasn't been described in a while or ever. Records about insects species and their ranges are terribly meager when compared to other animals (like birds for example), and many areas haven't had any sort of comprehensive surveying done in a long time or ever, especially with a group of animals like hornets, which aren't really of any economic importance. Basically what I'm saying is that if the species/subspecies is rare, we armchair entomologists probably won't be able to find record of it on the internet, because it may have never been photographed and/or the records may be too old to be digitized. I don't want to say, "Well, we can't figure it out, so it's definitely a new or rare species," because obviously I am not a real entomologist and in reality have nothing to go on but educated guesses, but it is a possibility. If you are really curious you could try contacting your state extension office, or a museum or college with a specimen collection. And I'll keep my eyes peeled for it as I'm perusing around. Definitely a tricky one. . . .
It looks like it may be a Genus Vespula queen. Markings and color of the thorax look similar.
http://native-bees-of-georgia.ggc.edu/?page_id=504
Quote from: beesnweeds on April 18, 2020, 04:39:53 PM
It looks like it may be a Genus Vespula queen. Markings and color of the thorax look similar.
http://native-bees-of-georgia.ggc.edu/?page_id=504
THAT'S IT!!! Vespula squamosa, the southern yellowjacket. I never thought about the fact that it could be a queen of a smaller species.
https://bugguide.net/node/view/7097
I found this to be particularly confirming "The queens are extremely large and robust for a yellowjacket, a trait which surely helps them to overpower and kill the host queens of the colonies they usurp." They are sort of like cuckoo wasps; the queens take over existing nests of other types of yellowjackets. "After killing the host queen, the squamosa adopts the nest and host workers, who raise her offspring. The colony eventually becomes pure squamosa as the original host workers die off." Fascinating. YES, WE FIGURED IT OUT! Now I can go on with my life. :cheesy: Seriously though, that was a fun one. :grin: Thank you so much, beesnweeds, that was the lead we needed!
Seriously though, that was a fun one. Sure was
We did it! I grew up around ?Yellow Jackets? and would not have thought about looking to see if this big girl was related to that. That was fun and I am so happy that we came to an answer.
This reminds me that last year, my wife and I found a cute spiky black caterpillar up in Michigan and thought it would be fun to find out what it was. Not only could we not find it after hours of scrolling through caterpillars, we could not find anything that looked remotely like it. I wish we had kept it and found out what it looks like as an adult.
Quote from: Leoj900 on April 18, 2020, 06:05:04 PM
We did it! I grew up around ?Yellow Jackets? and would not have thought about looking to see if this big girl was related to that. That was fun and I am so happy that we came to an answer.
This reminds me that last year, my wife and I found a cute spiky black caterpillar up in Michigan and thought it would be fun to find out what it was. Not only could we not find it after hours of scrolling through caterpillars, we could not find anything that looked remotely like it. I wish we had kept it and found out what it looks like as an adult.
If you have a picture we could give it a shot. Caterpillars are generally easier than wasps, since lots of people collect butterflies and moths. Spiky and black is pretty common among caterpillars though.
In this area, Arkansas, we have the European hornet, red head, paper football size nest. The red is a dead give away. They are huge, and prey on my honeybees. The are same size as the cicada killer, ground nester.
The fear in this country is the Japanese hornet seen in Washington state. Same size as European hornet, huge, but yellow head and nest in ground by the hundreds causing human death to the unsuspecting that stumble upon a ground nest. The Japanese hornet are similar to the first photo but twice the size.
Agreed, Ms. Member is our bug species identifier. She is very good at identifying.
And beesnweeds! Well... I would hate to ruin our winning streak, but I would love to know what this is.
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I think that is an American Painted Lady caterpillar. A few different butterflies are called that as a common name, but I think it's Vanessa virginiensis.
https://bugguide.net/node/view/488
Does that look right?
Looks right to me
You are telling me that we spent hours looking for this caterpillar and it turns out to be such a familiar friend? We have even raised some painted ladies when I was a kid. Thank you! That solved the biggest mystery I have had in my life so far.
Leo. I see these every year in early spring, searching around the yard, looking for places to start a nest. I always assumed they were yellow jacket queens. I never see hornets around Upson County, Georgia. But I do get yellow jackets in the summer/fall.
Quote from: Leoj900 on April 18, 2020, 08:48:34 PM
You are telling me that we spent hours looking for this caterpillar and it turns out to be such a familiar friend? We have even raised some painted ladies when I was a kid. Thank you! That solved the biggest mystery I have had in my life so far.
Haha, you are welcome! Don't feel too bad, I raised painted lady's as a kid too and didn't recognize it either, so I'm feeling dumb about that as well. :grin: