A colorful
Ichneumon wasp, so far, not even identified to subfamily on
BugGuide. I found this basking on the side of a car on a cool morning. Body length about 13 mm. This is a very diverse family, with more than 5,000 North American species and several
hundred genera. I poked around BugGuide for quite a while, and can't seem to find it--this is rather a surprise, because BugGuide has excellent coverage in the Southeast and has a lot of the common ichneumons identified now. Update--Bob Carlson on BugGuide identified this to subfamily
Banchinae. That may be as far as it gets. I released this--probably should have kept it as a specimen in hopes of future ID, though I'm no good at pinning insects--need more practice. (Further update--Bob identified this as
Diradops bethunei.)