I saw something like this today, scary

[JohnQPublic]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarantula_hawk

I saw something flying by. It had translucent red wings. At first I thought maybe a dragonfly, but there is no water nearby (and this was single winged). As I got closer I saw it had a dark black body and translucent red wings. It appeared to have a long stinger hanging from it. It looked more like 4-5" long to me, but I did not get close enough to measure it. The tarantula hawk is the closest thing I could find on the internet; though it is only close.

It made me think of the terrible creatures in the Apocalypse when I saw it.

[MAGNES]

John, I thought you were a fearless man of integrity who I have defended on here many times.

You think that is scary. I stepped on a wasp in the garden, hurt like hell, funny thing is no swelling.

Forums crawling with bug eyed scary critters from day one, John has no fear, so far. LOL !

http://smhttp.14409.nexcesscdn.net/806D5E/wordpress-live/images/they-live.jpg

[JohnQPublic]

John, I thought you were a fearless man of integrity who I have defended on here many times.

You think that is scary. I stepped on a wasp in the garden, hurt like hell, funny thing is no swelling.

Forums crawling with bug eyed scary critters from day one, John has no fear, so far. LOL !

http://smhttp.14409.nexcesscdn.net/806D5E/wordpress-live/images/they-live.jpg

In general wasps do not scare me. This was something beyond a normal wasp. I have been stung by a yellow jacket. It was no worse than a bee.

[Glass]

Interesting bug. I think the scary bit is the injecting baby bug eggs into another bug and those eggs eating the host bug. Sounds a lot like bankers.

Last summer I saw two unusual bugs, that I don't recall ever seeing before. They were wasp like. Organge wings, gun metal blue bodies and very long prominent stings. They were particularly interested in a patch of sand earth and didn't seem overly worried by my close up peering at them.

I'm thinking these might be something similar. Being in Aus, I'm not sure what to make of that. Well a quick google tells me they were spider wasps and Australia has them all over. Well there you go. I learneded something thanks to JQP.

[TheNocturnalEgyptian]

That thing looks like a wasp mixed with a butterfly that has leveled up. Truly wild

http://fireflyforest.net/images/firefly/2005/November/tarantula-hawk-wings.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Tarantulawasp.jpg/659px-Tarantulawasp.jpg

[old steel]

Bugs and insects in general are very resilient too.

Today i found some kind of flying insect on the lobby floor so i pointed it out to my dogs, large clear wings but frail looking body. They both took turns torturing it by chewing it up then left it for dead on the floor.

Walked back in 20 minutes later and the damn thing was testing it's wings out on short flights off the floor so one of the dogs chewed it up again.

Had to be dead now but when i came back in half hour later it was actually flying around.

I was so impressed i opened the door and let it free.

[JohnQPublic]

3129

Maybe this is what I saw. I thought it had a single wing set, but at first I thought it was a dragonfly, so maybe it was double winged. The size looks about right, and the huge stingers I saw may have been the rear legs hanging down as it flew.

[zap]

We have lots of tarantula hawks here, maybe it was a juvenile.

[Glass]

We have lots of tarantula hawks here, maybe it was a juvenile.

when I first heard tarantula hawks I started thinking about chicken hawks, which always makes me think of foghorn leghorn. Sometimes I'm as sharp as a bowling ball.

[joboo]

http://gold-silver.us/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3129&d=1341467634
http://ragegenerator.com/images/ragebuilder-faces/Surprised-Amazed/surprised-reaction-guy.png

[milehi]

I was stung in the leg by one when I was nine. Missed baseball for a week. Way more painfull than the time I stepped on a stingray.

I had one suck into the car through an open window while on a highway. I immediatly and recklessly pulled over and waited for it to exit the car. Shit. Now I'm going to have nightmares of Jumangi sized flying stinging insects.

[Horn]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AwkcFk_gZIE

[Awoke]

LOL Joboo.

[General of Darkness]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZbCzzZqZ9g

[madfranks]

http://gold-silver.us/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=3129&d=1341467634
http://ragegenerator.com/images/ragebuilder-faces/Surprised-Amazed/surprised-reaction-guy.png

http://www.myfacewhen.net/uploads/3326-yao-ming-scared.jpg

[Awoke]

They look like the oversized bugs from the video game "Fallout New Vegas" called Cazadors:

http://images.wikia.com/fallout/images/b/b1/LegendaryCazador.png

Except for Cazadors are the size of a Rottweiler.



EDIT after readng that Wiki entry, I am certain that I would have killed that bug if I had have seen it, JQP.

[JohnQPublic]

I was stung in the leg by one when I was nine. Missed baseball for a week. Way more painfull than the time I stepped on a stingray.

I had one suck into the car through an open window while on a highway. I immediatly and recklessly pulled over and waited for it to exit the car. Shit. Now I'm going to have nightmares of Jumangi sized flying stinging insects.

Ouch, especially for a undersized 9 year old body.

I imagined 10,000s of these emerging and swarming around angrily. Should not happen under any natural scenario.

[StreetsOfGold]

I was stung in the leg by one when I was nine. Missed baseball for a week. Way more painfull than the time I stepped on a stingray.

I had one suck into the car through an open window while on a highway. I immediatly and recklessly pulled over and waited for it to exit the car. Shit. Now I'm going to have nightmares of Jumangi sized flying stinging insects.

For those in the North with COLD temps. during a good part of the year, these kinds of things are kept at bay. Thank God for COLD weather