Help Me Identify: American Wasp Beetle?

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Today, I saw a strange, new insect in my garden. It looked like this:


http://www.divshare.com/img/midsize/15088522-2c8.jpg
(click for larger version) (http://www.divshare.com/download/15088522-2c8)

I was curious if it was a type of insect to be eliminated, encouraged, or just left alone. So first chance I got, I went to Google. Closest result I could find: Clytus arietis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clytus_arietis), the wasp beetle.

Only two problems: First, the one in my garden had a brown thorax and head rather than the black one I see in pictures.

Second, it is supposedly a European beetle and I have been unable to catch any references to the thing being brought to America and escaping to the wild, where it can find itself in a Wisconsin garden.

I am just curious if we have anyone on this board that can help me find out the story behind this bug.

[Eldan]

The problem is that many insects are basically impossible to accurately identify in the field without the proper tools, especially from a picture. I'll probably be in the collection tomorrow and can try to look it up for you, but no promises. Colour isn't always an entirely accurate tool: insects can have slight colour variations, or even change colour as they age.

That said, your assessment seems reasonably close.

Edit: from a short look around at a few sites (there really aren't too many good ones on the net, I'm afraid), it seems some Clytus species can be brown.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Colour isn't always an entirely accurate tool: insects can have slight colour variations, or even change colour as they age.
Yeah, the geographical misplacement is what threw me off more than the color. If it weren’t for that, I wouldn’t have thought anything about the color mismatch. That said, the pictures I’ve seen on the internet have been fairly consistent in color.


That said, your assessment seems reasonably close.
Well, if that’s the case, there just might be an interesting story I’ll never know. Then again, “Bug hitched a ride in a bunch of begonias” probably isn’t all that interesting.

Thanks.

EDIT response:

Edit: from a short look around at a few sites (there really aren't too many good ones on the net, I'm afraid), it seems some Clytus species can be brown.
Heh, I’ve had a hard time getting a good picture of any other Clytus species without turning up a bunch of Clytus arietis instead. The few I did get were decidedly different in body shape and stripe pattern. Don’t know what the acceptable variation is there.

[Eldan]

Bad news... seems we don't really have all that many Clytus here. We're an European collection, with almost exclusively European exhibits, and, well, it's not called American for nothing.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

Bad news... seems we don't really have all that many Clytus here. We're an European collection, with almost exclusively European exhibits, and, well, it's not called American for nothing.
Well, I don’t know if it called American. I was asking if there is an American species. ARKive says about Clytus arietis (http://www.arkive.org/wasp-beetle/clytus-arietis/image-A18727.html#text=Range), “This species has an extensive range, being found across Europe, Russia, the Caucasus, and southwards through Asia Minor.” None of which covers Wisconsin. Hence the confusion.

[Eldan]

Huh. Strange. Then we should have it. I'll look again tomorrow, perhaps it was mislabeled.

[Shhalahr Windrider]

If it helps, I see a lot of references to the thing being in the UK, so I guess it might be fairly common there. Don’t know how it fares in Asia Minor.

[hr]
EDIT: I have just found reference to Clytus species in North America(1 (http://bugguide.net/node/view/13934), 2 (http://bugguide.net/node/view/13935)). I have not figured out which one, though, since there are still differences between the one I saw and the two North American species I saw. But I have at least confirmed that it might not be invasive.