Field Guide

The green robber fly is one of several species of robber flies called giant robber flies or bee killers. They are indeed large, with distinctive yellow and dark stripes on the abdomen and iridescent green eyes.

Horntails look a lot like wasps but have a taillike spine that projects from the tip of the abdomen. Their cylindrical bodies also lack the narrow waist so common in wasps.

Scoliid wasps are a family of beetle hunters. Large, rather hairy wasps, some are handsomely colored. The female digs in soil, finds a scarab beetle grub, and lays an egg on it.

The antlion known to science as Glenurus gratus ought to be called the pleasing antlion, but it has no formal common name.

Blister beetles in the genus Meloe are called oil beetles because of a yellowish oil they excrete from their joints when squeezed or distressed. This oil contains cantharidin, an irritating chemical that can cause blistering in many people.

The Halloween pennant is one of the more common members of its genus. Distinctive wing markings include a complete brown band (not just a spot) positioned just short of the wing tip.

The eyed click beetle is only one of about 1,000 species of click beetles in North America. Most of the others are drab in comparison.

The female long-tailed giant ichneumon wasp deposits her eggs through wood. The larvae eat the grubs of the pigeon tremex, a wood-boring horntail wasp.

The locust borer is a longhorned beetle whose larvae tunnel into the trunks of black locust. The colorful black and yellow adults are often seen in late summer as they feed on the pollen of goldenrod and other flowers.

About six species of bird grasshoppers occur in Missouri. Most are attractively marked, large insects that gracefully fly from danger, almost like birds.