Dont find these in town often. Mostly further out in the boonies amongst the mesquite and scrub oak. These guys bite if you pick them up. Not super painful but youll know when they do it. This one was about 1.5” long. They get about twice this size fully grown.
The photograph doesnt do it justice. Its the darkest black, with a bright yellow streak down its back, with orange and red and green spots/stripes.
We did bug collections in 7th grade. Anyone that caught these guys was immediately the coolest for the week. If you caught more than one, you could trade for pretty much any other bug someone had caught.
The first time a kid caught one the teacher would put it on the projector and spent a solid 15 minutes fat shaming it and pointing out its little tiny wings.