ID Help

Can't help with the ID John, but looks like a damselfly with some unusually long antennae and legs. Like how the abdomen is curved like a hook. Does it fly well with such small wings?

Gary, I did not see this one fly, but I have seen a few like this flying before. (I think it was the same type of insect.) I too thought of a damselfly but the small wings and the antennaes confused me a little.

I'd try looking at Pelecinid wasps, possibly a Pelecinus polyturator female. If that is the species, it would be a parasitoid of June beetle larva which are probably out in large numbers in your area currently.

Wow, what a cool critter John! I've seen similar here in Texas, but that extra long abdomen and disproportionate wing size is unusual.
Must have been difficult to expose correctly, love the bluish sheen I see.
Great detail and well composed,
Nice work!

John,
This is one of the best shots of a Pelecinid that I have seen. Getting them all in focus is a real challenge, and the ones I have seen are usually quite active. Excellnet detail and exposure.

Nice dof - really good capture.

Thanks Dan and Wayne for your ID help. I can't believe this paperweight of a field guide doesn't show this Pelecinid. Is there a field guide that you guys like better than others or do you get most your info off the net?

With regards to id - yes.

Once you get past the Audabon and Peterson guides, there are a lot of specialty books out there to work with. Your library tend to grow pretty quicky, though.

The best single general reference I have run across is "Insects Their Natural History and Diversity with a photographic guide to insects of eastern North America" by Stephen Marshall. It covers the northern half of the eastern United States, west to the Mississippi, with some western species and some southern species as well (but not many). It is about $100 new but well worth it if you do a lot of insect photography.

My primary internet reference is BugBuide.net which is a great reference but you really need to know what you are looking for to easily find it. Pretty much everything you are likely to run across in North America is there but knowing some basic entomology really helps finding what you are looking for.

Here is the logic behind at least starting to id your photo: First glance from the thumbnail- dragonfly or damselfly. There are a couple of things wrong with that. There is should be two paris of wings but only one. Eyes are more wasplike than dragonflylike. Antennea remind me of wasps. The abdomen reminds me of some predatory wasps, especially the ichneumans, but segmented. So I was probably looking for a predatory/parasitic wasp family, which really cuts down on a lot on what I need to look at.

Once I found something that looked reasonable, checking it range, active months and host foods all looked good, thus my guess above for id. All total, about ten minutes of checking. PLEASE don't take the time comment wrong - I've spend a fair number of years learning to id insects so I had a good head start for knowing where to begin for a species I haven't tried to id previously.