American Pelecinid wasp
Shortly after we moved in to our home, we had a long-tailed flying insect land on our screen door. I thought to myself, “We just moved to this place. Let’s get to know our neighbors.” So, I snapped its picture and went looking to see what it was:
The wasp with the awesome tail.
It turns out our neighbor is an American Pelecinid wasp, or Pelecinus polyturator. Poly- means many and oura means tail, referring to the many-segmented tail found on this female. She uses that tail to deposit her eggs deep into the soil. Her young then parasitically feed off larvae of certain beetles.
We’ll have to have her over some time.