Moth-Wasp Hornet-Fly God Damn Friggin' Thing...???

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Spotted this on a brick on the perimeter of my garden.

Question: What is it ?

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Our resident entomologists ought to be along soon. But that looks like a moth that has been naturally selected to resemble a wasp. Insect mimicry

 

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Here is a moth that really looks like a wasp!
http://home.att.net/~larvalbugbio/beast/archbeast11-06.html

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Lacking a stinger, fuzzy legs etc, swelling at antenna tip, and so forth, that is almost certainly a moth.

Probably one of this general kind (there are a lot of wasp moths, this is the closest I could match the picture quickly) :

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As you might guess from the name (and my suggestion that there are more different kinds of them) you probably don't want a lot of those things in your garden.

 

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'Squash vine borer', eh ?

Fuck me... there it is...

http://www.aces.edu/counties/Tallapoosa/squashvineborer.php

Now I know what the damned thing was doing there.

Should have stomped it.

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I filmed this the other day, it's a June beetle. In the first clip, it's making a chirping sound by sqeezing air out of it's abdomen.
http://rapidshare.com/files/260126930/MVI_1754.AVI.html
And then it flew away.
http://rapidshare.com/files/260130420/MVI_1755.AVI.html

 

The green wings prompted me to think it was some sort of beetle while it was in flight. The wasp motif - presumably for the 'benefit' of birds that consume insects (not to mention the moth, of course) - would make it blend in well with the usual 'dawn patrol' of yellowjackets & brown wasps flitting about as I pull weeds on Saturday morning. They are big fans of the broccoli plants, which are usually dotted with drops of dew or overnight rain in the mornings, and any little mud puddles where water accumulated enough to soak the soil.

I've never seen one of these moths hereabouts before, though.

 

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Pretty cool Spider ! You should hear the Small Poplar Borer

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Do you photograph insects as well ? If so, do you host them some where I can see them ?

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Like I always say...

Thou shalt not suffer a pest to live.

Now I gotta keep an eye on the squash for the thing's insidious progeny, and/or find some non-toxic - to me, that is - means of insuring their deaths.
(I get my USDA of pesticides from grocery store veggies.... LoL)

Yep.

That baby's got a bullseye painted on 'um.

:mufc:

 

Why? Are you growing squash, melons, or cucumbers? If so, then yeah, stomp away.

 

Yes, as a 'last minute addition' for a bit of un-used space on People's Collective Farm Number Zero, I planted a handfull of summer squash plants.

Now mah leetle bebbehs be threatened by this fell invader and its maggoty brood !

Wasn't the return of the Mole-ish Insurgents trial enough, Lord...?!?!?

Is not the blight which falleth 'pon my potatoes proper punishment for my manifold sins...?!?!?!

Why doth thou test me so...??!?!?

:bawl::bawl::bawl:

 

did you plant watermelon?
If so, only a melon is sufficiently large, cut the vine and stick it in a bottle of vodka or rum. Tell me if it works.

 

Interesting notion, but I think the alcohol would kill the thing.

Didn't plant watermelons, and at 90-ish days to maturity, I doubt there's enough time to do so and get a crop of 'em here in the Soviet Socialist Republik of New York.

edit:
Vengance is mine !

Just found and crushed another of the fell emerald and vermillion invaders !

DEATH TO THE MOTHISH BREED !!!

 

as a kid we had to go out to the garden with a Mason jar of turpentine. Picking bugs and dropping them in the jar. The potato plants were the worst.
My daughter now does it in the yard to Japanese beetles

wow, what a sucky family tradition that is

 

Mechanical removal of the grubs works, if you don't have a whole field to clean up.

For each plant, look around the base of the vine, or major branch points (they need a fairly thick one to tunnel in, as they grow). Check especially vines on which the leaves are a bit wilted or something looks "wrong".

When you find an odd looking (apparently hollowed or discolored) stretch of the vine, slit it lengthwise at the spot (I use a jacknife) and remove any disgusting maggots discovered in the pith center.

If you catch them reasonably early, the vine will be OK aside from a weak spot at the tunnel - if you can support or protect that spot, you're good to go. If there's too much damage, you might be better off pruning the affected vine or branch and directing the root resources into undamaged vines.

You have the moth's competitive exclusion working for you - the maggots you remove have put out signals discouraging further infestation by more moths of that kind. But that isn't 100% reliable, especially with thicker vines.

 

I specialized in photography in college, but I don't have anything easily accessible. It's hard to take such close up shots with a digital camera.

 

It's a moth from the Sesioidea family. I am researching the species.

 

Melittia cucurbitae.

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Don't crush them!

If you are going to kill them put them against a piece of cardboard or styrofoam and pierce through their thorax with a needle. Make yourself a neat little moth catalog.