CLOSED: Scorpion tailed wasp... which one?

First time I saw this one in my garden. Which is this please?

This is a Crane Fly, belonging to the Family Tipulidae, but there are many of them so it might be difficult to ID.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipulidae

There are always *so many* of these creatures! But I always thank you for the clue you give so nicely - you take me to the address on the street, but I have to find the 'person' in it!

So many, Dinu, that the address on the street would have been relatively easy and I may have been able to find the person for you if it had been a small family!

This is more like a very large city which I have already been around and found it too easy to get lost in!

Let me give you some more street directions, but the map is complicated and it may take a lifetime to navigate. This is where one wonders if it is worth the effort, unless a very good clue to the hidden treasure can be found.

If you can determine which Genus it belongs to, you can do a search for all the species availabe in your country. Then you can work your way through each species within that genus and do a search, the chances are slim but it depends how lucky or determined you are, or how long you expect to live! It may also be a more common one and well documented, but sometimes a google search requires more specific information to give results.

http://ip30.eti.uva.nl/ccw/index.php

You can search if you have a name or Genus, enter 'Tipula' and select 'India', see what you get!

http://ip30.eti.uva.nl/ccw/search.php

That won't give pictures but does give all the species with a link to their history.

Good luck!

wow that looks like it would give you a really painful sting!!!!

Not a sting Donna, that is it's 'ovipositor' or egg laying mechanism!

Thanks Wallaby for your nice and useful reply. My PC at home has crashed and so I'm having less time to browse in the office. Once it is set right, I'll search for the home and its dwellers.

Not a sting? That may also be another way to imitate a dangerous insect to protect itself??

Dinu, there is an advanced search link but that may be more complicated than needs be.

Yes, the tail does imitate a sting, nature is very clever! I have discoverd flies which look like wasps, but that is so they can attach their eggs to the flying wasp without suspect. There are other flies which imitate bumblebees in order to be able to enter the nest to paratise it. Then we have flies which paratise wasps nests, and wasps which paratise bees! Nature's food chain, ugly sometimes....

Nature's food chain... its art of imitation.. they are so fascinating and you know so much about them! Keep them coming as I'm learning so much from these threads I being a nature lover. Today my PC was set right. Am now catching up with other things. Will come back to this soon.