As is often, the winged bug caught our eyes during a morning walk. Initially, thought might be a hornet. Took video and stills, one with a measuring tape body. Later, I estimated the insect at ~ 2”, using some kludgy composite means of measuring items. Easiest way to estimate the length would have been simply pull some of the measuring tape out, lock it, place the tab near one end the insect, and take a pic.
"Crabronidae, the crabronid wasps, including the mud daubers and sand wasps" section of "Insect Identification Key" and "Genus Specius" section of BugGuide.net greatly helped my bug determination. BugGuide's Taxonomy tab shows the four species convallis (Pacific), grandis (Western), hogardii (Caribbean), and speciosus (Eastern).
In looking at the BugGuide's Sphecius genus images, the yellow markings of the images I have seem to best indicate the Eastern species. Look at a Pac-Man image, then look at killer wasp images I offer up. Do you also see Pac-Mannish faces? Contrast with markings of other species' examples—less Pac-Mannish, imho. (View my video for circling-around peering.)
I recalled I had blogged about a cicada wasp with cicada. Revisted "Wasp and Cicada Together". The pic of a neighbor and dead cicada wasp greatly resembles the Cicada Wasp Flickr image.
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