Field Guide

Dizzyingly fast runners and fliers, tiger beetles are remarkable, and often very colorful, insect predators.

Bumblebees are like huge honeybees: They are yellow and black, collect pollen and nectar, live in colonies, and make honey. They are capable of stinging, if molested or if their nest is endangered, but you need not fear them; they are not aggressive.

Beetles in the family Silphidae are called carrion beetles, burying beetles, and sexton beetles. They are usually black and often have red, orange, or yellow markings. Members of this group eat dead animals or scavenge dung or decaying plant material.

Longhorned beetles are elongated and cylindrical, with antennae that are at least half the length of the body — sometimes much longer. The larvae are grubs that bore in wood or other plants. Some are serious pests.

The eastern cicada-killer wasp might be the scariest-looking wasp in our state. But it is not aggressive to people and is virtually harmless, unless handled roughly. Like other ground-nesting wasps, nests can be recognized by the mound of earth excavated by the female.

A large solitary wasp, the great golden digger wasp occurs throughout Missouri. The abdomen is orange in front and black at the end. The head and thorax have golden hairs. Like all solitary wasps, this species is not aggressive.

Mud daubers are among the most familiar solitary wasps. They belong to a number of related groups, but we call them all "mud daubers" because they all build their nests out of mud. One way to tell the different mud daubers apart is by the distinctive architecture they use.