Name that bug!
 

I've never seen this kind of bug before. What is it? The part coming out of the abdomen is about 4" long and has several strands of what feel like stiff hair.

I don't know what that one is in particular, but I saw some cool bugs that were similar when I was in Indonesia. Where did you find that one?

ichneumonidae?

http://images.google.com/images?num=20&hl=en&safe=off&client=safari&rls=en&resnum=0&q=ichneumonidae&um=1&ie=UTF-8&s

Very well could be.

It was on the back of a trailer in the shop. I noticed it as I was reaching for the jack stand under the bumper.

That family looks wicked, but that long abdominal process isn't a sting, it's an ovipositor (though in truth, the wasp's sting is a modified ovipositor -- think about that the next time you get nailed by a hot wasp!).

The ovipositor is rammed into the place where the eggs are to be deposited -- hence ovi (egg) -positor. I think that a lot of ichneumids parasitize their hosts during the maggot stage. The female female stabs the victim with her hypodermic ovipositor and squirts eggs into the host. The little darlings hatch and consume the host and pupate internally.

Cool, huh?

B

Whatever it is, a scorpion was invited to the party...

So, are you saying that's one, well-hung bug?

They have a few of those around here. One day at work one came at me and I had a shovel in my had so I swung and hit it. The damn thing went to the ground and flew away. Someone said it was some kind of Chinese mud wasp?