Answers to the Monday Night Mystery

Speed was essential to scoring points in yesterday's istockphoto taxonomy fail challenge. Commentator JasonC replied within minutes of the original posting with 8 answers correct to the appropriate level and is awarded 8 points. RobM and MarekB also picked up a point each for adding identifications of the Syrphid and the fire ant male.

Correct answers were considered those that identified the mystery insects to the same taxonomic level as the original iStockphoto misidentification:

  1. Red Admiral
  2. Robber Fly
  3. Hemiptera
  4. Crane Fly
  5. Katydid
  6. Cuckoo Wasp
  7. Hornet (Vespa)
  8. Drone Fly (Eristalis)
  9. Sugar Ants (Camponotus)
  10. Fire Ant Male (Not a queen!)

This brings us to the end of the month and the Grand Tally of Points. Last month's champion JasonC retains the crown with 18 total points, followed by runners-up FormicidaeFantasy (8 points) and James Trager (7 points). That means JasonC needs to email me to arrange the loot.

Finally, one more fail for the road:

i-559804c4916ef84644dcb42d7cab40e7-istockfail11.jpg

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It makes no difference in the final results, but I still think #2 is a therevid due to the apparent absence of a mystax (which all robber flies possess).

I thought the one for the road was a picture of paper bees!

By James C. Trager (not verified) on 02 Jun 2010 #permalink