I honestly can't tell, but it could be a wolf spider.
They can be big, they can be pretty small.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
edited September 2020
Looks like some species of grass spider. Wolf spiders don't have the long prong-like spinnerets sticking out of their butts. You should be able to confirm by matching up their eye pattern, if you've still got it in the jar.
Also, fun fact, those aren't fangs. They're pedipalps, which in this kind of fast-moving ambush spider are important sensory organs, kind of like a cat's whiskers. They're also used to transfer sperm packets during mating and serve as a secondary male sexual characteristic, which is why your dude there has such pronounced and visible ones. They're the same structures that evolved into pincers on scorpions!
They're harmless to humans and spend most of their time hanging out in funnel-shaped webs in your yard. They do tend to invite themselves inside quite a bit, especially during dry periods or when the weather starts to cool down.
Jedoc on
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
Hm, so less scary but more gross, got it.
Thanks, that seems to be it.
We've had quite the parade of critters coming through here lately, probably due to the dry spell and now the cold.
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
edited September 2020
Here's another one who already is ahead because they're outside, but I think is very far from home:
That look like either the pigeon tremex (Tremex columba), or something very closely related.
Also known as "horntails" or "wood wasps", these guys lay their eggs inside, you guessed it, wood! (and other things, stems of many different trees, other plant stems that aren't necessarily wood depending on species)
Here's a short guide (that's for Missouri, but could be helpful) to get some more information. Despite looking scary, they can't sting, and are basically harmless. Well, harmless to you. Some of them are pretty serious agricultural pests.
The pidgeon horntail and it's predator (the giant ichneumon wasp) are both very scary looking and perfectly harmless (to you).
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Saw one of these ladies running around yesterday. She was moving very fast, couldn't get a great picture, but here's what I got:
Lens identified this as Dasymutilla occidentalis, the "red velvet ant", "eastern velvet ant", "cow ant", or "cow killer." Per wikipedia, it is a parasitoid wasp native to eastern US, often mistaken for a true ant.
Any bug experts that can explain how scientists decide whether something is a wasp rather than an ant?
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
I can't answer that, but I can advise you to stay the hell away from them. They've got one of the most painful stings of any North American insect. I encountered one on the bottom of a stair railing once and my first thought was that there must be a jagged piece of metal sticking out that I'd just ripped my hand wide open on.
Saw one of these ladies running around yesterday. She was moving very fast, couldn't get a great picture, but here's what I got:
Lens identified this as Dasymutilla occidentalis, the "red velvet ant", "eastern velvet ant", "cow ant", or "cow killer." Per wikipedia, it is a parasitoid wasp native to eastern US, often mistaken for a true ant.
Any bug experts that can explain how scientists decide whether something is a wasp rather than an ant?
Ants belong to the same family as wasps and bees (hymenoptera) and split off somewhere in the early Mesozoic era some 140 million years ago (so not quite as old as the first mammals or birds).
It is however fairly easy to tell if something is an ant or a wingless wasp.
a. Ants have elbowed antennae. Wingless wasps don't (some wasps, and almost all bees, do have elbowed antennae. But they have wings).
b. All ants have one or two petioles, small nodes between their thorax and abdomen, while wasps are...wasp-waisted. On some rarer groups of ants the petioles can be hard to see, but they're there.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Ants and Wasps are weird because it's one of those "all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares" things.
Ants and Wasps are in the Order Hymenoptera, as Fiendish said. In this Order are two "suborders", the Symphyta and the Apocrita. Symphyta are organisms that look like wasps, but don't have a tiny waist- a GREAT example is on this page! The Siricidae, represented by the Pigeon horntail! Look at the place at the base of the wings on that image- in Symphyta the abdomen and the thorax are roughly the same shape. In the Apocrita, however, there is a narrowing between the thorax and the abdomen- you can see that in the picture of the Velvet ant.
Generally, most organisms you think of as "Wasps" are in the Apocrita. The Apocrita also includes things like bees and ants. Furthermore, the Apocrita can be further broken down into "Wasps with stingers" (the Aculeates) and "Parasitic wasps" (Parasitica).*
So ants, which have a stinger, are in both Apocrita AND Aculeata...but so are things like Paper Wasps, Velvet "ants", Honeybees, and lots and lots of other Hymenopterans.
More importantly, though, is that the family that includes ants (Formicidae) is nestled in essentially the "middle" of Aculeata- that means they weren't the first Aculeates to evolve, nor were they the newest Aculeates (the newest ones are bees!). What this means in terms of classification is that what we consider "Ants" are basically "Special, weird wasps", since it's basically impossible to form what we consider a "monophyletic" group of wasps that doesn't include Ants.
What "monophyletic" means is that you include the organism you're interested in (ants) as well as their most recent common ancestor. You can do that with ants really easily, and it's fine. But once you try and make a monophyletic group of all the things we call "Wasps", then suddenly you can't make the grouping correctly unless you also include ants (it's paraphyletic otherwise- it includes almost all of the organisms with a common ancestor, but leaves some out for no reason).
So what this all means is that all ants are wasps, but not all wasps are ants, since ants are derived from wasps, and moreover, they share a common ancestor with a large group of wasps that gave rise to things like Digger wasps and Sphecid wasps.
In terms of identification of "wasps" vs "ants", like Fiendish said, I go with "Does it have wings? Are the antennae elbowed? Are there petioles?" if all three are "Yes", then it's probably an Ant-wasp, and not a different kind of wasp.
Hope that helps! It's massively confusing!
*sidenote- "Parasitica" isn't really used anymore because we moved a bunch of things that used to be in this group into other groups inside hymenoptera, but it sticks around because it's easy shorthand and biologists love a dichotomy.
Ants and Wasps are weird because it's one of those "all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares" things.
Ants and Wasps are in the Order Hymenoptera, as Fiendish said. In this Order are two "suborders", the Symphyta and the Apocrita. Symphyta are organisms that look like wasps, but don't have a tiny waist- a GREAT example is on this page! The Siricidae, represented by the Pigeon horntail! Look at the place at the base of the wings on that image- in Symphyta the abdomen and the thorax are roughly the same shape. In the Apocrita, however, there is a narrowing between the thorax and the abdomen- you can see that in the picture of the Velvet ant.
Generally, most organisms you think of as "Wasps" are in the Apocrita. The Apocrita also includes things like bees and ants. Furthermore, the Apocrita can be further broken down into "Wasps with stingers" (the Aculeates) and "Parasitic wasps" (Parasitica).*
So ants, which have a stinger, are in both Apocrita AND Aculeata...but so are things like Paper Wasps, Velvet "ants", Honeybees, and lots and lots of other Hymenopterans.
More importantly, though, is that the family that includes ants (Formicidae) is nestled in essentially the "middle" of Aculeata- that means they weren't the first Aculeates to evolve, nor were they the newest Aculeates (the newest ones are bees!). What this means in terms of classification is that what we consider "Ants" are basically "Special, weird wasps", since it's basically impossible to form what we consider a "monophyletic" group of wasps that doesn't include Ants.
What "monophyletic" means is that you include the organism you're interested in (ants) as well as their most recent common ancestor. You can do that with ants really easily, and it's fine. But once you try and make a monophyletic group of all the things we call "Wasps", then suddenly you can't make the grouping correctly unless you also include ants (it's paraphyletic otherwise- it includes almost all of the organisms with a common ancestor, but leaves some out for no reason).
So what this all means is that all ants are wasps, but not all wasps are ants, since ants are derived from wasps, and moreover, they share a common ancestor with a large group of wasps that gave rise to things like Digger wasps and Sphecid wasps.
In terms of identification of "wasps" vs "ants", like Fiendish said, I go with "Does it have wings? Are the antennae elbowed? Are there petioles?" if all three are "Yes", then it's probably an Ant-wasp, and not a different kind of wasp.
Hope that helps! It's massively confusing!
*sidenote- "Parasitica" isn't really used anymore because we moved a bunch of things that used to be in this group into other groups inside hymenoptera, but it sticks around because it's easy shorthand and biologists love a dichotomy.
None of the above information is correct. I have it on good authority that wasps belong to the family Assholia, genus Burntheminfire.
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JedocIn the scupperswith the staggers and jagsRegistered Userregular
Listen, if there's one thing Jurassic Park taught us, it's that we mess with nature at our own peril. Every niche exists for a reason, even if we don't entirely understand why. So unless you're going to be the one to slowly torture a bunch of bugs to death in a nightmarish array of Hellraiser body horror scenarios, leave the wasps to their grim work.
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
Sorry but no one has yet given me a single Godly purpose a yellow jacket can possibly serve. Fire is the only way.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
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RingoHe/Hima distinct lack of substanceRegistered Userregular
Sorry but no one has yet given me a single Godly purpose a yellow jacket can possibly serve. Fire is the only way.
Clearly they are a test of faith
Your willingness to believe in a loving and just universe vs the existence of yellow jackets
It is the spiritual dilemma of our time
what if u like wasps and consider them proof that the universe loves you, specifically?
That means that a highly specialized parasitoid wasp has laid eggs in the pleasure center of your brain while you were sleeping. Very common condition.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Sorry but no one has yet given me a single Godly purpose a yellow jacket can possibly serve. Fire is the only way.
Clearly they are a test of faith
Your willingness to believe in a loving and just universe vs the existence of yellow jackets
It is the spiritual dilemma of our time
what if u like wasps and consider them proof that the universe loves you, specifically?
Have you considered you might be infected by Ophiocordyceps unilateralis?
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
Sorry but no one has yet given me a single Godly purpose a yellow jacket can possibly serve. Fire is the only way.
Clearly they are a test of faith
Your willingness to believe in a loving and just universe vs the existence of yellow jackets
It is the spiritual dilemma of our time
It is a daily struggle, and horseflies certainly offer no help toward the former.
Well, yellowjackets can kill horseflies and feed them to their larvae, so at least there's that.
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
Not sure if they even have that many natural predators. Orb weavers definitely, but probably not to a significant degree.
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
Bears.
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
| Zinnar on most things | Avatar by Blameless Cleric
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ceresWhen the last moon is cast over the last star of morningAnd the future has past without even a last desperate warningRegistered User, Moderatormod
edited October 2020
Yeah I saw one of those at my parents' last summer and ran it through iNature. It came back with INVASIVE. It is really good to have that reporting info.
edit: I just handed my mom the link and she was like "YEAH NO KIDDING I'VE HAD TREES TREATED TWICE THANKS FOR THE TIMELY INFO THOUGH"
ceres on
And it seems like all is dying, and would leave the world to mourn
yea, we got a dozen or so of them, mostly my 9 year old who made it his mission to kill them rather than play at the playground we were at. My 4 year old was the quoteable one and he did partake in the kill fest.
I did report it. though it was in a quarantined county so I am assuming they knew about it.
I was surprised how dumb they are. you smack them with a hat or something and they like basically flew at you. one of my kills i threw my hat at one, it flew towards me then I got it.
Reminded my son to always double tap stomp to make sure
yea, we got a dozen or so of them, mostly my 9 year old who made it his mission to kill them rather than play at the playground we were at. My 4 year old was the quoteable one and he did partake in the kill fest.
I did report it. though it was in a quarantined county so I am assuming they knew about it.
I was surprised how dumb they are. you smack them with a hat or something and they like basically flew at you. one of my kills i threw my hat at one, it flew towards me then I got it.
Reminded my son to always double tap stomp to make sure
Apparently the big thing is to look for and destroy the egg clusters.
Now to teach your kiddos how much fun Aqua Net and a Bic lighter can be!
yea, we got a dozen or so of them, mostly my 9 year old who made it his mission to kill them rather than play at the playground we were at. My 4 year old was the quoteable one and he did partake in the kill fest.
I did report it. though it was in a quarantined county so I am assuming they knew about it.
I was surprised how dumb they are. you smack them with a hat or something and they like basically flew at you. one of my kills i threw my hat at one, it flew towards me then I got it.
Reminded my son to always double tap stomp to make sure
They're 100% weevils. Funny that you should mention rice, because I think they're rice weevils based on size and general shape (and antennae placement).
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
So the first is a harvestman. Which means I have no effing clue what species it is. Harvestmen are weird. You can tell it's a harvestman because it doesn't have a distinct abdomen-thorax.
The second one I think is a Carolina Wolf Spider (Hogna carolinensis). Mostly because it's effing huge, it exists in colours from tan to black and it can feature that distinctive very sharp line over the thorax. Also, the eye constellation seems to fit from what I can tell.
"The western world sips from a poisonous cocktail: Polarisation, populism, protectionism and post-truth"
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
The first is also informally known as a "Daddy Long-Legs," not to be confused with cellar spiders, which are also occasionally known as Daddy Long-Legs. They're non-spider arachnids (probably?) and are really cool to watch walk around like War-of-the-Worlds-style walkers.
Posts
Spider incoming.
Roughly measured out to be about 35mm, leg to leg. Got some nasty looking fangs. Thinking wolf, but not big enough, right?
They can be big, they can be pretty small.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Also, fun fact, those aren't fangs. They're pedipalps, which in this kind of fast-moving ambush spider are important sensory organs, kind of like a cat's whiskers. They're also used to transfer sperm packets during mating and serve as a secondary male sexual characteristic, which is why your dude there has such pronounced and visible ones. They're the same structures that evolved into pincers on scorpions!
They're harmless to humans and spend most of their time hanging out in funnel-shaped webs in your yard. They do tend to invite themselves inside quite a bit, especially during dry periods or when the weather starts to cool down.
Thanks, that seems to be it.
We've had quite the parade of critters coming through here lately, probably due to the dry spell and now the cold.
Also known as "horntails" or "wood wasps", these guys lay their eggs inside, you guessed it, wood! (and other things, stems of many different trees, other plant stems that aren't necessarily wood depending on species)
Here's a short guide (that's for Missouri, but could be helpful) to get some more information. Despite looking scary, they can't sting, and are basically harmless. Well, harmless to you. Some of them are pretty serious agricultural pests.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Lens identified this as Dasymutilla occidentalis, the "red velvet ant", "eastern velvet ant", "cow ant", or "cow killer." Per wikipedia, it is a parasitoid wasp native to eastern US, often mistaken for a true ant.
Any bug experts that can explain how scientists decide whether something is a wasp rather than an ant?
Very pretty, though!
Ants belong to the same family as wasps and bees (hymenoptera) and split off somewhere in the early Mesozoic era some 140 million years ago (so not quite as old as the first mammals or birds).
It is however fairly easy to tell if something is an ant or a wingless wasp.
a. Ants have elbowed antennae. Wingless wasps don't (some wasps, and almost all bees, do have elbowed antennae. But they have wings).
b. All ants have one or two petioles, small nodes between their thorax and abdomen, while wasps are...wasp-waisted. On some rarer groups of ants the petioles can be hard to see, but they're there.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Ants and Wasps are in the Order Hymenoptera, as Fiendish said. In this Order are two "suborders", the Symphyta and the Apocrita. Symphyta are organisms that look like wasps, but don't have a tiny waist- a GREAT example is on this page! The Siricidae, represented by the Pigeon horntail! Look at the place at the base of the wings on that image- in Symphyta the abdomen and the thorax are roughly the same shape. In the Apocrita, however, there is a narrowing between the thorax and the abdomen- you can see that in the picture of the Velvet ant.
Generally, most organisms you think of as "Wasps" are in the Apocrita. The Apocrita also includes things like bees and ants. Furthermore, the Apocrita can be further broken down into "Wasps with stingers" (the Aculeates) and "Parasitic wasps" (Parasitica).*
So ants, which have a stinger, are in both Apocrita AND Aculeata...but so are things like Paper Wasps, Velvet "ants", Honeybees, and lots and lots of other Hymenopterans.
More importantly, though, is that the family that includes ants (Formicidae) is nestled in essentially the "middle" of Aculeata- that means they weren't the first Aculeates to evolve, nor were they the newest Aculeates (the newest ones are bees!). What this means in terms of classification is that what we consider "Ants" are basically "Special, weird wasps", since it's basically impossible to form what we consider a "monophyletic" group of wasps that doesn't include Ants.
What "monophyletic" means is that you include the organism you're interested in (ants) as well as their most recent common ancestor. You can do that with ants really easily, and it's fine. But once you try and make a monophyletic group of all the things we call "Wasps", then suddenly you can't make the grouping correctly unless you also include ants (it's paraphyletic otherwise- it includes almost all of the organisms with a common ancestor, but leaves some out for no reason).
So what this all means is that all ants are wasps, but not all wasps are ants, since ants are derived from wasps, and moreover, they share a common ancestor with a large group of wasps that gave rise to things like Digger wasps and Sphecid wasps.
In terms of identification of "wasps" vs "ants", like Fiendish said, I go with "Does it have wings? Are the antennae elbowed? Are there petioles?" if all three are "Yes", then it's probably an Ant-wasp, and not a different kind of wasp.
Hope that helps! It's massively confusing!
*sidenote- "Parasitica" isn't really used anymore because we moved a bunch of things that used to be in this group into other groups inside hymenoptera, but it sticks around because it's easy shorthand and biologists love a dichotomy.
None of the above information is correct. I have it on good authority that wasps belong to the family Assholia, genus Burntheminfire.
Clearly they are a test of faith
Your willingness to believe in a loving and just universe vs the existence of yellow jackets
It is the spiritual dilemma of our time
They are trying to stop you from getting a sunburn.
Also keep my weight down by flying into/near my Coke can.
what if u like wasps and consider them proof that the universe loves you, specifically?
That means that a highly specialized parasitoid wasp has laid eggs in the pleasure center of your brain while you were sleeping. Very common condition.
Have you considered you might be infected by Ophiocordyceps unilateralis?
It is a daily struggle, and horseflies certainly offer no help toward the former.
Well, yellowjackets can kill horseflies and feed them to their larvae, so at least there's that.
Horseflies are actively malicious to living things in general, but yellow jackets are hate-filled evil made manifest on the physical plane.
Sparrows eat horseflies too, let's have more sparrows.
Not sure if they even have that many natural predators. Orb weavers definitely, but probably not to a significant degree.
Spotted Lanternflies are no joke, they are a serious invasive pest.
I would also recommend reporting that you found one to your local USDA office.
More information is here: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/aphis/resources/pests-diseases/hungry-pests/the-threat/spotted-lanternfly/spotted-lanternfly
edit: I just handed my mom the link and she was like "YEAH NO KIDDING I'VE HAD TREES TREATED TWICE THANKS FOR THE TIMELY INFO THOUGH"
yea, we got a dozen or so of them, mostly my 9 year old who made it his mission to kill them rather than play at the playground we were at. My 4 year old was the quoteable one and he did partake in the kill fest.
I did report it. though it was in a quarantined county so I am assuming they knew about it.
I was surprised how dumb they are. you smack them with a hat or something and they like basically flew at you. one of my kills i threw my hat at one, it flew towards me then I got it.
Reminded my son to always double tap stomp to make sure
Apparently the big thing is to look for and destroy the egg clusters.
Now to teach your kiddos how much fun Aqua Net and a Bic lighter can be!
they are slightly smaller than your average grain of rice
they look like weevils to me but I studied architecture so
best I can do on my phone camera =(
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
This creepy vampire
And this kind of adorable one who’s the biggest spider I’ve ever seen in the wild and I thought was a frog at first
The second one I think is a Carolina Wolf Spider (Hogna carolinensis). Mostly because it's effing huge, it exists in colours from tan to black and it can feature that distinctive very sharp line over the thorax. Also, the eye constellation seems to fit from what I can tell.
-Antje Jackelén, Archbishop of the Church of Sweden
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]