A strange insect

Factual Questions
1

I wonder if there is someone who can tell me about the strange insect I saw yesterday. I tried to take a picture of it, but it is blurred.

It looked some what like a dragon fly(a little smaller) It had 2 long feelers off of its head 4 long legs like a spider and 2 long strings coming out it’s back that were a good 3" long. It curls it’s body under so it looks like a ring.

Thanks ahead of time.

Monavis

2

Sounds like you saw a Mayfly.

I used to go to upper Michigan in the summer and these things were FUCKING EVERYWHERE. Living and dead, they covered every fucking surface of everything. The most annoying goddamn bug in the world. The good thing is that they provide food for fish.

3

Mayfly

But I don’t think you saw a mayfly…not in August.

4

Mayfly does sound like a better fit because they look a lot like dragonflies. Just to throw another option out there, the stoneflies have two appendages sticking out their rear (cerci) which fits part of your description.

Mayflies sounds more likely given that the cerci were 3" long though.

5

3" appendages off the tail sounds like too long for a mayfly.

Perhaps an Ichneumon wasp?

It has a t least one very long appendage off the tail, much longer than a mayfly.

Sometimes that (ovipositor, I think?) looks like two parts in images I’ve seen.

They’re also often depicted as curling the tail underneath themselves perhaps when laying eggs.

Sailboat

6

Thanks guys, I will look up both and see if that is the one.

Monavis

7

Hi Sailboat,

I looked up Ichneumon wasp, and it looked a lot like one. The color was duller brown and it had 2 antennae instead of the one, so I assumed it could be of the same species.

Thaks,

Monavis