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Wildlife Spotting

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42.0129, -73.9082

Field Notes

Description:

Dark color, almost black, with crinkled looking wings. Almost an inch long.

Habitat:

Range : Eastern North America south to Oklahoma and Mississippi.

Notes:

Living in my dormitory.

As of right now I'm leaning toward Great Black Wasp for this. Need to do a little more research.

Species ID Suggestions

Comments (4)
RiverValleyRunner
Wow thank you ForestDragon! After I checked your links I noticed that this looks just like a Great Black Wasp, and I wondered if I might have miscopied the size down from my notes and it turns out I did-it was .9 inches, not .5, which would make it much closer to the size of the Great Wasp. Unfortunately this is the only angle I have since I did not want to flip it over...I'm going to go through those other links, but for now I'm thinking that Great Black Wasp is the best bet. Thanks again!
ForestDragon
I agree that this is most definitely a wasp. Though I think the body shape and color on the legs are a bit different than Macrophya fumator. This reminds me a lot of Sphex pensylvanicus - Great Black Wasp. They are fairly large in size though. http://bugguide.net/node/view/5530 Did you happen to see or photograph the body underneath the wings (so that you could describe the shape of the abdomen)? Take a look on bugguide through the wasps and see if you can find something that matches. Here is a larger selection of areas to look through if you have time: http://bugguide.net/node/view/117315/bgpage Hope this helps!
RiverValleyRunner
Hmm looking at pictures online it certainly does, the stonefly picture was the closest thing in my book but this seems closer. Thanks for the correction!
ChunXingWong
Beautiful wasp, this looks like a Macrophya fumator.
Photographed
PublishedOctober 10, 2012

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