this thing buzzed past me like a hummingbird and then sat on my raised bed wall for a while. the wood it’s sitting on is roughly 1 inch wide. bug was about 2 inches long. what is?
Mydas fly?
that looks about right, thank you!
deleted by creator
Those are pretty cool. It looks like the adults are nectar feeders and larva predate grubs in dead logs/trees. They tend to be large with the biggest looking like this:
my favorite thing i read about them on wikipedia following the ID was that not only does their coloration mimic a spider hawk wasp, they also reportedly fly around poking things with their harmless butts, presumably so that potential predators are convinced of their waspitude.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mydas_clavatus?wprov=sfti1#Biology
According to Seek, it is a clubbed mydas fly.
Party on Garth
