So she's actually orange and green

I went out to the linden tree again, this time with a butterfly net. And after a few catches and immediate escapes, I finally managed to transfer one of those orange beasties to a container.

Those guys are fast!

Some kind of wasp; narrow waist, ovipositor, long antennae. Crawling up the wall of the container. A second or two later, she* was gone.

I love those stained-glass wings!

I've searched through BugGuide's orange wasps, without finding a match. So I'll crop this and a few others (belly, wing venation, etc.) and send them off for an ID.

And then I'll post my linden tree residents inventory; lots of critters coming up!

*She, because she has the ovipositor for laying eggs.

Orange blaze beastie

I am far too optimistic. I make plans as if life could be counted on to keep to a schedule. Silly of me; I should know better by now.

There were a couple of orange "something or others" dashing around the branches of the linden tree. I took photos; none turned out identifiable. Mostly, the critters had left before the camera clicked. Or there was a blurry hint of an orange streak in the distance.

The clearest shot I got was an accident; I was after the yellow jackets by this time.

See it there, in the upper left corner? Very orange, very fast. With a long "tail", which I'm guessing is an ovipositor.

I was doing inventory of the linden tree's residents this year (not the same as last year's), but I wanted those orange thingies! So I went out again this afternoon, searching for them. Now I have one more or less passable photo, at least to give me a basic idea as to where to start looking on BugGuide. I'll go out tomorrow to try again, if the weather holds.

For now, I'm off to BugGuide until I'm too sleepy to see straight.