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Thought I finally got a tarantula wasp shot today, but the abdomen was wrong. A biology PhD student friend showed it to some colleagues, who pointed me to the Alcathoe genus on iNaturalist.
#Invertebrates
Whoa, it’s a moth. That’s some nice mimicry.
I didn't realize what it was until I got home and pulled my photos into Lightroom. Even its flight path looked convincingly like a tarantula hawk!
I love the long tail. I think it might be part dragon too. 🐉
I was looking on my phone, just saw the cylindrical abdomen and thought “oh that’s a Sirex wood wasp.” Probably part of the same mimicry!
Oh yeah, a very similar look! To paraphrase another comment, it pays to look like the spiciest snack in the country!
If you’re gonna mimic something, mimic the spiciest snack in the whole country.
I was looking at pictures of the other species on iNat; they're all spectacular!
