wasp, bee or fly?

[tonrey30]

Felt this crawling on my neck when i started driving! glabbed and threw into footwell before i knew what it was, took this picture before it objected to being flicked out of door by pencil by rearing its tail up at the pencil!!! Pic doesnt show clearly but it has a light brown furry complexion and about 1 1/2 inches long! Any ideas??

[Matt Smith]

A Sawfly, one of the Cimbicidae.

[tonrey30]

thankyou for your response, but how sure are you as i have researched the sawfly and cannot find anything of the same build? This was a very robust wasp like creature larger than any size quoted for a sawfly and didnt seem to have any kind of saw on its rear end when it lifted its tail. Is there any other possible identifications or any more info on this creature that you can tell me?

[Jason Green]

Evening Ton, and welcome to WAB!

Definately a Cimbicidae member. The term Sawfly comes from the fact that the females have an ovipositor with a saw-like structure used to cut into plant stems to lay eggs. The ovipositor, or 'saw' maybe, is I believe held inside the abdomen when not in use - so not visible in a case like this.

To the experienced they have quite a distinctive appearance. As for not having found anything too similar, the internet doesn't possess images of all insects out there, and indeed not all identifications can be done by photo - as may be the case here (differences can be subtle and sometimes call for a specimen).

Take care,

Jason

[Matt Smith]

Do a Google for "Cimbex" or "Trichosoma" and you will get lots of images of large sawflies looking very much like the one you have a picture of. As Jason says, they are not all slim small things and they don't have a "saw" sticking out of the rear as do many icneumon species.