Wasp?

[derwoodynck]

Spotted this as we were preparing to cross East Fork Canyon Creek in the Strawberry Mountain Wilderness on 7/25. It has some nice color but it was also quite large. Anyone know what it is?

[adamschneider]

Wow, cool beans. Might be a wasp, or it might be a fly pretending to be a wasp... or maybe a sawfly — they're in the ant/bee/wasp family.

[bobcat]

It looks like one of the giant ichneumons (Megarhyssa sp.). They are a family related to wasps, but they don't sting. The females have the longest ovipositors related to body size in the insect world - I think I see it in the picture stretching behind its rear end.

[adamschneider]

It looks like one of the giant ichneumons (Megarhyssa sp.). They are a family related to wasps, but they don't sting. The females have the longest ovipositors related to body size in the insect world - I think I see it in the picture stretching behind its rear end.

We have a winner! I tried browsing ichneumon wasps earlier but didn't find a match. Narrowing it down to Megarhyssa made it easier: it appears to be Megarhyssa nortoni.

[derwoodynck]

Thanks for solving that mystery.

[Waffle Stomper]

He's pretty darn cool. Great find.

[derwoodynck]

It looks like one of the giant ichneumons (Megarhyssa sp.). They are a family related to wasps, but they don't sting. The females have the longest ovipositors related to body size in the insect world - I think I see it in the picture stretching behind its rear end.

We have a winner! I tried browsing ichneumon wasps earlier but didn't find a match. Narrowing it down to Megarhyssa made it easier: it appears to be Megarhyssa nortoni.

I had emailed OSU as well as posting here and heard back from a faculty research assistant who also identified it as a Megarhyssa nortoni.