One of the weirdest!
Everyone, welcome to Terrestrial Arthropods of San Diego County (TASDC)!
While browsing through the Neuroptera of San Diego County project, I found this amazing observation by @jrebman!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/11240278
This has to be one of the weirdest insects out there. And of course, in good entomology fashion, the name does anything but give away the true identity of the beast.
It's more yellow than brown, it's not a wasp, it's not a mantis or a fly!! But it is in the Mantidfly family (Neuroptera).
It feeds on other insects including it's own kind and the larva is a parasite feeding on spiders and their egg sacs.
Jon Rebman's observation is the only photo of this insect in the county on iNaturalist!
Can you find more?
Another mantidfly (genus Plega) seems to be a little more common in San Diego.
Check out this observation from @silversea_starsong:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/15861687
Beautiful photo James!
Enjoy exploring the different projects in TASDC!
Comments
I realize now that I'm looking at this species in the rest of the country that the abdomen is more often brown, with sometimes thin yellow bands. So the "brown" descriptive is not a misnomer. The individual that was found in San Diego by Jon just has a more yellow abdomen than most :)
That species copies the local paper wasp species. The yellow form matches Polistes aurifer which is coastal, and the brown one goes for Polistes dorsalis which is more common in the desert.
Thanks James, makes a lot of sense. Nature is amazing!
It sure is a fantabulous creature!
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