At boyscout camp in upper Wisconsin we saw a wasp type bug with a tail about 5 or 6 inches long. What is this creature and can I see a photo of it somewhere?
You don’t mean a dragonfly do you?
Here’s a thread-waisted wasp but those are only a couple of inches.
No i know it wasn’t a dragonfly. it looked like a normal wasp except it just had a very long tail/stinger. i have herd on an insect that used a long stinger like this for drilling into trees and laying eggs maby this is what i saw?
Thread-waisted wasp came to my mind too, but again, too small. Also too small would be Torymid wasps, which have very long ovipositors for their size, but I think they’re still much much shorter than 5-6 inches. Maybe an American Pelecinid? The females are supposed to have an extremely long abdomen, I don’t know if it would be 5-6 inches, though. Is there an entomologist in the house?
It may be a Pelecinid Wasp but i can’t be quite sure untill i see a picture of both. i have a pic of the pelecinid but not the Torymid. does anyone know where i can find a pic of a torymid (torymidae) wasp?
A good field guide should have pics of both… Simon & Schuster’s, Peterson’s, an Audobon Guide would probably be helpful.
Looking in the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Insects & Spiders, there’s a picture of both (a Torymid is shown at plate 463, and the only North American species of Pelecinid (Pelecinus polyturator, is shown directly below it) if your local library doesn’t have a useful field guide, you might try doing an image search through altavista. Also, for all I know, there may be many other kinds of wasps that fit your description, so maybe someone with a more entomological bent than myself will come along and help…
Perhaps an Ichneumon wasp?
Not too many pictures of them out there, but here are a few more, if that helps.
Torymid wasp pictures. Only the fist picture showws the long ovipositor.
Does The Fig Wasp Really Produce A Gall?
Look near the bottom of the page for this picture: <<Bogus fig wasps (family Torymidae and Eurytomidae) have an unusually long ovipositor. It can easily penetrate the long-style flowers which are too long for true female fig wasps. … Although they do not benefit the fig tree, torymid and eurytomid wasps are common inhabitants of New World fig syconia.>>
At this page
Control of Brazilian pepper fruit feeding insect Megastigmus transvaalensis (Hymenoptera: Torymidae) there is a link to this picture: <<However, a recent arrival to Florida has appeared that feeds on the seeds of Brazilian pepper. This species, Megastigmus transvaalensis (Hymenoptera: Torymidae) was probably introduced accidentally from Reunion or Mauritius via France in Brazilian pepper fruits sold as spices in exotic food stores (Habeck et al. 1989). This species was also reported from Hawaii (Beardsley 1971) where it was suspected of displacing the biological control agent L. atronotatus (Yoshioka and Markin 1991). Additionally, individuals of the wasp have been collected from the Canary Islands (Grissell 1979), Argentina and Brazil (Grissell unpublished data) and from California (Harper and Lockwood 1961). The host range of this species includes the South American Schinus molle (Hussey 1956; Grissell 1979; Yoshioka and Markin 1991) and four South African Rhus species including R. laevigata, R. verminalis, and R. angustifolia (Grissell, E. E. personal communication). In Florida this species has been reported only from S. terebinthifolius fruits however, considering its purported South African Rhus origin (Grissell unpublished data), this species may constitute a threat to Florida?s native anacards.>>