An amazing adventure at the frog pond today. I have studied insects since early childhood; I very rarely come across anything I have never seen before — especially a large insect. Today was an exception.
While working on my frog sneaking technique, I noticed something struggling in the mucky, green-covered water. There are tiny-leafed plants covering the surface, which is extremely still, so anything moving stands out boldly. In any pond with fish, this kind of movement would attract a strike rather quickly, but there are no fish in this pond other than possibly minnows.
I got a long stick, and began the rescue. What I discovered astonished me, for I have never seen anything even vaguely resembling it. I took the creature to the sun, and began to work with it to insure its revival.
What I found was a winged insect about 1.25 inches in length. It was wasp-like, but didn’t have the peculiar head features common to familiar hymenoptera. Its abdomen was a dull orange color, brighter near the ovipositor, which was about 1/16th of an inch in length (correction – no ovipositor – it was a male sirex noctilio, see link inserted post-post, below). The creature was large, and had two orange teardrop shapes behind its eyes. It was about 1/4th of an inch in width. No tapering of the body parts (head, thorax, abdomen) except at the end of the abdomen where the ovipositor was.
The head and eyes were black, other than the orange ‘cheeks’ behind the eyes. The eyes were oval, but its mouth-parts did not resemble those of bees or wasps. It was two-winged, and the wings were about an inch in length, transparent, with a slight hint of rust color. There was some more rust color near the ends of its legs, light. The thorax was nearly half an inch long, and had dark patterned fur that was thin.
I have never seen anything resembling it before, and it was a large insect.
I put it on some wood in the sun and began to work with it, carefully drying its wings and abdomen with a shred of tissue from my pocket. I examined it closely with my pocket-magnifier. After about three minutes, it began to preen its face (a good sign), and I started to transfer life-energy to it in the way I have learned in my chi practices. About a minute into that process, it preened once more (only its face) and took to the air. I was very excited to see it recover, and to have discovered an insect that I cannot identify (my research so far has failed to disclose its identity).
Although it shared many anatomical features with wasps, I do not believe it was a wasp.
Mystery solved with the assistance of @[542210258:2048:Alexi Helligar]…
It was a male sirex noctilio:
But even more astonishing: this creature has a symbiotic relationship with a tree that I visit and interact with daily… the (redacted).
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