Our last challenge of 2012 is to identify this mystery beastie:
The eyes give this insect away as it moves, barely visible, across the sands of the Anza Borrego desert. What is it?
Points will be awarded to the first person to correctly guess the Order (2 pts), Family (4 pts), and Genus (4 pts).
The cumulative points winner for the month of December will win their choice of 1) any 8×10-sized print from my insect photography galleries, or 2) a guest post here on Myrmecos. (Incidentally, speaking of my galleries, tomorrow is the last day to order prints of my photographs at sale prices).
Good luck!
A personal blog by Illinois-based biologist and photographer Alex Wild.
Sphaeropthalma, Mutillidae, Hymenoptera
Order Hymenoptera.
I was going to specify more than the order once I found it, but Piotr beat me to it! Bugguide seems to say that the winged males are easier to identify than wingless females, so I won’t try a species ID. http://bugguide.net/node/view/660812
Hymnoptera, Formicidae…
Is that too obvious?
Mutillidae? Just guessing.
Hymenoptera; Bradynobaenidae; Cyphotes?
Think also that it is a Sphaeropthalma species, maybe S. edwardsii…
Or S. orestes or S. unicolor. These are, at this moment, all the candidates that I can find. But it must be one of the last two and not S. edwardsii.
Hymenoptera: Chyphotidae: Chyphotes (Pitanta)
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