Chris Tucker

Last updated 10:46, Thursday, 21 August 2008

IS this the biggest bug of the summer? A couple from Whitehaven - Karren McGuire and Robert Beattie in Bransty - found this unusual insect on their living room window.

Can you identify this bug?

As Karren sat down on the sofa she caught sight of something in the corner of her eye crawling on the inside of the window. Seeing a long thin insect, with wings and a sting on its end the same length as its body she panicked, rushed over to the fridge, emptied the tub containing the tomatoes and placed it firmly over the creature. Her fear wasn’t unnecessary however, being allergic to wasp stings and needing an instant injection if she was to be stung.
No one is quite sure what type of insect it exactly was, but after searching around the names Lissonota, Pimplinae, Dolichomitus, Liotryphon and Paraperithous crept up.
Is this creature native to England, or is it an unexpected visitor? Wherever it’s from, it certainly caused a bit of a buzz!

UPDATE: Our thanks to all those who have emailed in  telling us exactly what this creature is. Our first reply came from Paul Callister from Canada, telling us that the creature was a female Ichneumon wasp, sometimes called a sabre wasp. It’s one of the largest ichneumon flies in Britain and are found in Europe, north Africa, North America and Asia. They may look menacing with their long, sting-looking tail, but it’s infact harmless to humans and uses its sting to lay eggs.