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next message in archive<br> Thank you both for your comments and information provided. The mainly black abdomen was not what I usually expect to see on B-F Hornets. But the images on BugGuide show this feature varies a lot. Nancy On 2015-09-01, at 3:28 PM, David McCorquodale <dbmcc09@gmail.com> wrote: > Nancy: > > It looks like a freshly emerged adult Bald-faced Hornet, _Dolichovespula maculata_. > > As Randy pointed out you can see the long antenna. By my counting there are 13 segments, so this is a male. Females have only 12 segments in the antennae. You can also see how the eyes have an indent near the base of the antennae. This is a feature of the family Vespidae. > > This is the species that builds the paper nests in trees and shrubs. They can be quite large at this time of year. > > The males will seek out large females to mate with in the next few weeks. Males live for a week or two then die. No males overwinter. The large mated females overwinter and start nests in the spring. All the workers in the current nests will die in the next 6-8 weeks and the nests will be abandoned. Overwintered females start new nests each spring. > > There is syrphid fly, _Spilomyia fusca_, that is a very good mimic of the Bald-faced Hornet. Stuart Tingley has an interesting post about it in NB: http://birdingnewbrunswick.ca/group/beetlesandbugsforbirders/forum/topics/fooled-again-bald-faced-hornet-mimic-hover-fly-spilomyia-fusca > > BugGuide has some images of the mimic: http://bugguide.net/node/view/5891 and Bald-faced Hornet: http://bugguide.net/node/view/2890 > > DBMcC > Georges River, NS > > David McCorquodale > Georges River, NS > > On Tue, Sep 1, 2015 at 12:50 PM, Randy Lauff <randy.lauff@gmail.com> wrote: > This is a wasp, not one of the mimic Syrphid Flies. The antennae are much too long for a Syrphid fly; the wings of your specimen are folded longitudinally...this happens in wasps, but never in flies. > > Randy > > _________________________________ > RF Lauff > Way in the boonies of > Antigonish County, NS. > > On 1 September 2015 at 12:00, naturens <nancypdowd@gmail.com> wrote: > This Syrphid? Wasp? or? was on the window screen at 7:30am this morning. It was pumping the rear segments of its abdomen rapidly in and out: > https://www.flickr.com/photos/92981528@N08/20874473299/in/dateposted-public/ > > It looks like some of the Syrphids on BugGuide but nothing I see quite matches. Would anyone know an ID? Details below image. > > Thanks, Nancy > >
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