I found this in my pool in La Mirada SO. CA.... At 1st I was thinking murder hornet, but after checking on line, I don't think so... It

was about 1-1/2' to 2" long... Not an elm saw fly, or a cicada killer wasp, bumble bee or carpenter bee... I have more pics if that would help identify it... Probably something simple that I'm missing..

Butch

I can't tell the size. Is it a Cicada Wasp?

11 hours ago, SeanK said:

I can't tell the size. Is it a Cicada Wasp?

It's about 1-1/2" long... Its seems to be too heavy bodied to be a cacada killer wasp...

Butch

11 hours ago, Butch said:

It's about 1-1/2" long... Its seems to be too heavy bodied to be a cacada killer wasp...

Butch

I had some one year. The were living under my driveway.

On 6/19/2026 at 7:31 PM, SeanK said:

I had some one year. The were living under my driveway.

Did they look like this?... Where they Cicada Killer Wasp... I know we have a different species of Cicada Killer here on the West Coast, than the East coast variety... Still the body looked to be too heavy for a Cicada Killer... Man wish I knew what it was...

Butch

3 hours ago, Butch said:

Did they look like this?... Where they Cicada Killer Wasp... I know we have a different species of Cicada Killer here on the West Coast, than the East coast variety... Still the body looked to be too heavy for a Cicada Killer... Man wish I knew what it was...

Butch

Not going to say what it is, because you already know.. I will say, however..

Take a close look at it's anatomy, ..what group of pollinating insects does it most closely resemble?

..Is extremely common, though some may not realize it has a couple color morphs.. Can't remember if that is general, or gender related ( Males / females a different color than the other sex ) More than one sp within this genus is common out there as well, so a perfect /exact ID is bit tougher to sus out.

...Genus it belongs to starts with an X

Definitely is not a Cicada ..find me one species that looks like this ..anatomically..

" Murder Hornets? " ..Yeaa, no such thing ..and have never been found anywhere near CA.

Looks pretty much the same. Mine seemed fatter, but it was 2019 or 2020 so I don't remember well

19 hours ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Not going to say what it is, because you already know.. I will say, however..

Take a close look at it's anatomy, ..what group of pollinating insects does it most closely resemble?

..Is extremely common, though some may not realize it has a couple color morphs.. Can't remember if that is general, or gender related ( Males / females a different color than the other sex ) More than one sp within this genus is common out there as well, so a perfect /exact ID is bit tougher to sus out.

...Genus it belongs to starts with an X

Definitely is not a Cicada ..find me one species that looks like this ..anatomically..

" Murder Hornets? " ..Yeaa, no such thing ..and have never been found anywhere near CA.

Carpenter Bee??? I looked at a lot of pics, especially the male but it lacked the fuzziness or green eyes... Maybe a different bee??? This shows the actual color a little better..

Butch

1 hour ago, Butch said:

Carpenter Bee??? I looked at a lot of pics, especially the male but it lacked the fuzziness or green eyes...

Assuming you looked here as well?

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/244216-Xylocopa-sonorina#similar-tab

22 hours ago, Silas_Sancona said:

Assuming you looked here as well?

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/244216-Xylocopa-sonorina#similar-tab

Whoa! I have now... That's a lotta pics... Some looked pretty close, but the one I saw didn't have much body hair, or the green eyes( at least that I noticed).... The Xylocopa griswoldi (Griswold carpenter bee looked the closest, but they aren't found here in So. Cal... Only in SE Texas or NE Mexico... I wish I had taken better pics and been more observant... Probably is a carpenter bee, but I'm not sure That Inaturalist is pretty a cool site.. Thank you for posting it...

Butch

24 minutes ago, Butch said:

Whoa! I have now... That's a lotta pics... Some looked pretty close, but the one I saw didn't have much body hair, or the green eyes( at least that I noticed).... The Xylocopa griswoldi (Griswold carpenter bee looked the closest, but they aren't found here in So. Cal... Only in SE Texas or NE Mexico... I wish I had taken better pics and been more observant... Probably is a carpenter bee, but I'm not sure That Inaturalist is pretty a cool site.. Thank you for posting it...

Butch

Like those i see here every year when they emerge from the " chunk of trunk " i kept to provide habitat ( Were using it as a nesting spot before i cut that specific tree down ), how they look when observed can vary a little, depending on age / time of year, and other factors..

Interesting article on the genus.. Did not realize they can live for ...3 years and are considered -at least- somewhat social.
https://www.fs.usda.gov/wildflowers/pollinators/pollinator-of-the-month/carpenter_bees.shtml

Some i've seen ( when they'd actually sit still, long enough to get a shot or two, lol ) had less fuzz, and / or eyes that were more gold colored than leaning toward the suggested " shade of green ".

The main thing to focus on when narrowing down an ID? esp. insects?, basic morphology.. Then eliminating any " could be " candidates via how likely they are to be common where you live..

Luckily, this is a pretty easy sp. of bee to ID.. Ligate, Furrow, Cuckoo, and /or Sweat Bees? ..Can definitely take more time to ID with 100% accuracy.

Not sure if all phones have the ability now or not but, i know some have the feature on them that can instantly suggest IDs of pictures of critters taken on the phone itself. Isn't perfect, esp. with plants, but would consider the ID suggestions i've gotten from an old phone i'll use when not using the camera have been better than expected.

..Suggestions from it have narrowed the list of possibilities down enough that i could then use iNat. to find the best match at least.


Avoid anything Facebook myself but there are numerous, really good insect - centric FB groups out there. Bugguide.net is another good insect reference / ID'ing site.

As a whole, and unlike sites that might focus squarely on a specific / specific groups of animals ( ..or plants.. ) while iNat. has it's flaws, as a " Citizen Scientist -esque / focused " website, there is nothing better out there for ID -ing ..anything.. Observation data from it has actually helped experts document unknown populations of various things as well.