Poplar Clearwing Borer (Sesia tibialis)

This pair of wasp look-alikes was found on a raspberry leaf in the backyard garden. First appearing to be similar to a yellow jacket, I searched online through the 18 Yellow Jacket species in Alberta (see links at bottom of page for more info), but there were no matches. The Home Bug Gardener has since come to the rescue again and provided the following information:

 
I think you have a pair of mating Clearwing Moths (Family Sesiidae) - most of which mimic one wasp or another. 

The American Hornet Moth aka Poplar Clearwing Borer, Poplar Crown Borer: Sesia tibialis (Harris, 1839) seems most likely. The larvae burrow through the cambium of aspen, poplar, green ash, lilac and other hardwoods. I saw what I think was one in my yard a couple years ago - but she quickly flew off and I got no picture.

Pretty cool mimic, because yellowjackets even mate that way - with the male dangling from the female (although male yellowjackets are more similar in size to females).

See: http://bugguide.net/node/view/160324

Also: http://www.entomology.museums.ualberta.ca/searching_species_details.php?fsn=Sesia&sb=1&r=2&o=1&c=2&s=6200&sn=Sesia+tibiale

NB - species name seems to be misspelled - tibialis in my books 

It is fascinating to learn about this species, which I knew nothing of before. It is easy to be fooled by wasp look-alikes.

More info from the second link above:

life history
The larvae are borers in the stems and roots of the hosts. The life-cycle requires two years to complete, with the moth overwintering twice in the larval stage. They pupate in the spring of the third year, and emerge shortly thereafter. The adults are diurnal, but are rarely seen.

diet info
The larval host is species of poplar, and to a lesser extent willows. They appear to prefer stressed of damaged host trees.

range
Widespread in western North America, east at least across the Prairie Provinces, and south to California and Arizona. In Alberta it has been collected mainly in the foothills and parklands, but likely occurs throughout the wooded parts of the province, wherever hardwoods are present. It has been recorded in adjacent Saskatchewan in both the arid Grasslands National Park area and at Uranium City.

notes
Also called the American Hornet Moth (Wong and Ives, 1988). It is rarely encountered unless baited with synthetic pheromones.

Links regarding the 18 yellow jacket wasp species in Alberta:

http://people.ucalgary.ca/~longair/vespine.html

Vespula genus:
http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/bsc/ejournal/bmc_05/key_vespula.html

Dolichovespula genus:
http://www.biology.ualberta.ca/bsc/ejournal/bmc_05/key_dolichovespula.html

Mystery Moth (Antheraea polyphemus)

Well, since it is still too wintery to be blogging about any real live gardening activity, here is another mystery insect I thought I'd post in hopes of identifying since we had such great help last time.

This huge moth (5 inch or 13 cm wingspan) was found on my Aunt's farm in Saskatchewan on June 7, 1992. Since then we have never identified it (or if we did we did not write it down). I plan to get a book out from the library to attempt to identify it but thought I'd post it here in the meantime. Not sure if it is a common or rare moth. I recall we caught it flying around the outdoor house light, where moths are typically found of course. I remember hoards of them around our lights on the farm, but rarely see them in the city here. Not sure if this is a rural-urban difference, declining numbers over time or Calgary's climate.

UPDATE: The moth appears to be a male Antheraea polyphemus with common name simply Polyphemus Moth (see discussion and links in comments below). They are relatively common in North America and feed on numerous species of trees and shrubs, not dependent on a single species of plant like the wood wasp we found earlier this winter (see link above). They range from southern Canada to northern Mexico. There is a good possibility there are some in Calgary or perhaps in our own yard. We'll keep an eye out.

Sawfly - Birch Wood Wasp (Xiphydria mellipes)

We have discovered a refugee family trying to keep warm in our house. We're hoping that a certain blogger can help us at least generally identify the critter.

I am at a loss to even venture a guess, I'm not even sure if I can assure our concerned daughter that it doesn't bite. We have found 3 or 4 over the past few weeks, usually alone and somewhat docile but moving. Usually crawling slowly across the floor, the last guy attempted to fly but could not quite leave the ground (see action shot below).

Length estimated at 15 mm. Using only a 5-year-old point-and-shoot camera (I guess that's old in electronic years), I must say I'm surprised some of them sort of turned out.

UPDATE: This bug has been identified as a Wood Wasp (a type of Sawfly) by 'The Home Bug Gardener' and species confirmed by Robin Leech via Albertabugs via Henri Goulet: "This is a Xiphydriidae. The species is Xiphydria mellipes associated only with small (less than 3 inch) branches of dead birch." Thanks to everyone for their help!

The bug's home is clearly small diameter paper birch branches we cut last year and placed inside for use as coat/hat racks. The wood wasps are waking up confused and disoriented in their new interior habitat! I have confirmed online that wood wasps do not sting and do not pose a threat to structural wood in the house (I guess that assumes small diameter birch is not used for home construction in this case!).

I think this helps with our decision to keep at least some of our dying paper birch as a bug and bird sanctuary (I was debating chopping them down). I wonder who else is living in there??