Post by Steve B on Jul 20, 2008 22:52:26 GMT -7
Well perhaps I am posting this in the wrong forum.
I was camping out on the Illinois River out of Selma, OR over the weekend, and we saw the largest bee(s) we have ever seen in our life.
I tried googling it, but I couldn't find anything that matched specifically what we saw.
First off, the size is rather daunting. It was about 2" long. Sort of mud-dauber looking in appearance, but much larger bodied without the small stem leading to the thorax. The wingspan was equal in width as in length, and made a very loud buzz during flight.
The colors were odd, however. The front half was black, it's wings were also black. But the rear was black/white striped, and the last 1/4 of the thorax was bright neon orange in color. It was not fuzzy, and resembled a yellow-jacket (wrong colors) or bald-faced hornet in appearance. It was for sure NOT a beetle of any kind, and had every characteristic of a bee. My first guess would be a giant (literally giant) bald-faced hornet, with an orange rear-end.
Can anybody identify this bee? I've never seen anything like it. And I hope that I never run into it again. Especially being allergic to bees.
As of right not I'm not ruling out it being some sort of alien. That reminds me, it had a very odd flight pattern. It reminded me much like a hummingbird, very jerky motions, not smooth like you'd see a wasp doing.
This is the closest image I could find.
k53.pbase.com/o6/48/95248/1/82664304.CViaQLDq.GreatGoldenDiggerWasp.jpg
Any thoughts?
I was camping out on the Illinois River out of Selma, OR over the weekend, and we saw the largest bee(s) we have ever seen in our life.
I tried googling it, but I couldn't find anything that matched specifically what we saw.
First off, the size is rather daunting. It was about 2" long. Sort of mud-dauber looking in appearance, but much larger bodied without the small stem leading to the thorax. The wingspan was equal in width as in length, and made a very loud buzz during flight.
The colors were odd, however. The front half was black, it's wings were also black. But the rear was black/white striped, and the last 1/4 of the thorax was bright neon orange in color. It was not fuzzy, and resembled a yellow-jacket (wrong colors) or bald-faced hornet in appearance. It was for sure NOT a beetle of any kind, and had every characteristic of a bee. My first guess would be a giant (literally giant) bald-faced hornet, with an orange rear-end.
Can anybody identify this bee? I've never seen anything like it. And I hope that I never run into it again. Especially being allergic to bees.
As of right not I'm not ruling out it being some sort of alien. That reminds me, it had a very odd flight pattern. It reminded me much like a hummingbird, very jerky motions, not smooth like you'd see a wasp doing.
This is the closest image I could find.
k53.pbase.com/o6/48/95248/1/82664304.CViaQLDq.GreatGoldenDiggerWasp.jpg
Any thoughts?
