Beetle or Bee?

[eve11]

Hey hey, time for another installment of "what the hell is that bug?" It was flying around the living room and I thought it was a wasp and that the cats were gonna get stung, so I swatted it out of the air with the bug-zapper racquet that kalypso_01 got for me. It was wasp-sized but wider and bulkier than a wasp; looked like a cross between a beetle and a honeybee, and was orange and black.








Pretty sure the wings were like beetles, eg under that carapace... which isn't where honeybee wings are. And... it's clearly orange. Which isn't what color bees are. Anything? I think the wings might only be out because I zapped it. And its thorax (and legs maybe?) was fuzzy.



ETA: OH, because we can always guess that it involves carrion if we find a bug in our house... looks like a Tomentose Burying Beetle?

Comments

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

I would have guessed a cicada, but Googling turns up this possibility:

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

[eve11]

Yeah, it's looking like a burying beetle... which, man, I hope whatever it was burying was OUTSIDE. I think it might be a Tomentose Burying beetle (gold-necked)?

ETA: try this link instead: http://bugguide.net/node/view/593599

[ladymercury-10.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, that does look like your beetle-y friend. What a weird bug!

[eve11]

*sighs* It just makes me wonder what dead thing it was feeding off of, and where... It was flying around our living room!

[auntiemeesh.livejournal.com]

That's a new one for me. Ah, nature, providing us with constant googling opportunities!

[eve11]

Doesn't it just? I haven't seen any more of them. I felt bad for zapping it afterward; I thought it was a bee :(

[stlscape.livejournal.com]

I saw one of those for the first time yesterday, flying around our birdfeeders.

[eve11]

Wow, that's a coincidence! Then again, the internet says they tend to be active this time of year. I've definitely never seen one before.