Devoted Twitter-watcher Matthew Cobb found this bizarre insect, with the tw**ter asking for information. Can you guess what this insect is? We’ll put up the answer when it’s posted.
Let's play a game of Name That Insect! What is this? (Don't be a downer & reverse image search). Answer in 2 hrs Photo by L. Shyamal (CC-BY) pic.twitter.com/pMBth4Gtym
— Morgan Jackson, PhD (@BioInFocus) February 2, 2017
Nancy
I’ll go with that. Or Nick if it isn’t female.
Lovely Nancy! 🙂
Is that Spiderman on her back?
I thought wasp in Spider-Man pyjamas.
I saw that too. Spider-Man wasp?
Auto-fill for name and email stopped working again…darn.
Is the photo showing only one complete organism?
Not expecting an answer…
Yes, one individual.
Is it an ant-mimicking beetle?
Mel Gibson in the next Mad Max movie.
“Steve” he looks like a Steve.
Are you sure it’s not Alan
It’s a spider.
Or maybe one insect eating another head first.
Looks like it might be a mimetic fly. A very very weird mimetic fly.
My guess is that it’s some kind of stinging ant but I would have no idea of its name.
Something in the Diptera, going by those eyes.
Jimmy Durante reincarnated as an ant?
It’s something mimicking an ant. Looks like it has evolved a bulbous ‘nose’ (I have no friggin’ idea what the bits of insects are called) that imitates the head.
An amazing bug. Even more deceitful and two-faced than the incoming administration, if possible.
Thank you, Mr. Cobb.
Well, if we are going for a proper name–then it has to be Antoinette (or Antony)
My guess is that this is a parasitic fly emerging from the thorax of an ant. If so, the ant has an odd head.
But ok–if its not an ant pretending to be a hunting wasp (my first thought) then its a bug pretending to be ant pretenting to be a hunting wasp. Some sort of Batesian mimic?
Ah – I checked the original author’s website. Never would’ve guessed, though I detected correctly the eyes and antennae, because it’s not from this continent (or any I’ve been to). Very weird bug!