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What is a wood bee (not carpenter)?

8 years ago

The insect is about one inch long, larger than a yellow jacket or honey bee and smaller than a cicada killer. Didn't have a readily visible skinny "waist". Shiny thorax and head in the sun. I couldn't see any hairs on it, but then I couldn't get close to it. Not particularly aggressive. It was flying around a tree stump. An east Tennessee tree person said it was a wood bee.

So what is it?

This is the best picture I could take:

The following photo is from Flickr; it's close to what I saw:

Thanks for any help.

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Comments (5)

PRO
User
8 years ago
Likely the common Yellowjacket Hover Fly, Milesia virginiensis.

http://bugguide.net/node/view/1105808/bgimage

http://bugguide.net/node/view/2837/bgimage?from=0

http://bugguide.net/node/view/2837

Note the lack of obvious antennae and the single pair of wings in your image, ruling out bees or wasps. (2nd pair of wings in many wasp images can be hard to distinguish).

The term "wood bee" seems to be a synonym for Carpenter bee, or else it is too generic of a common name to be of use as a species ID.
canishel
Original Author
8 years ago
Thanks!

I didn't think I saw a second pair of wings, but I didn't trust myself.
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Jean
8 years ago
Umm. Antennae are quite obvious.

it's a yellowjacket wasp.
PRO
User
8 years ago
The second image that was being used as a comparison to image 1, is a yellowjacket wasp. The requested ID is for image 1, and that is a hoverfly; the antennae are not apparent in that image.
canishel
Original Author
8 years ago
Logician is correct.

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