• Question from:Laurie

Outside our front door, (SW Missouri) hovering around us and a small flower bed by the front door was a large (4" long) winged, insect that looked like a fly as far as head and wings, but it also had a HUGE wasp-shaped body with black and white jaggedy-stripes. I didn't think to get a picture; have any idea what it might be?

Photo
  • South London
  • Posts: 528

Laurie,

I'm afraid that most if us are UK based biologists and so, without a very good picture, we are very unlikely to be able to provide a identification. That being said, even with a good picture, there are so many species (some 4,000+ 'wasps' here in the UK alone - admittedly, not all 4" long!) that a full identification is often impossible from photographs alone.

However, do look up things like pigeon woodwasp to see if this looks remotely similar...