Observation: Cicada Killer Wasp

This little guy (or gal) died on my back porch about a week ago. It caught my attention since no one in the house swept it up in all this time, but they all stopped to admire or recoil at its size. While conducting research on what type of bee it was, I learned something new; wasps are not bees. ( I didn't know this, so maybe none of you did either.) I've never referred to anything as a wasp before, preferring the term "big bee."

 I spent a good chunk of time trying to figure out whether this was a bee or a wasp (I suspected wasp, but this is science so I wanted to be sure.) After cross-checking my internet sources with my specimen, I came to the conclusion that this is a wasp.
You too can use the internet to identify bees and wasps!
http://nature.berkeley.edu/urbanbeegardens/general_waspsvsbees.html

A Cicada Killer Wasp. Sphecius Speciosus. 
It is over an inch long, with 4 amber-colored wings. One pair about as long as its body, and a slightly shorter pair lower down the thorax. It has a golden fuzzy thorax. It used to have 6 legs (now only 5) and a black abdomen with yellow markings across the back. Male wasps don't have a stinger, and since this guy's lower abdomen was broken off (stepped on) I can't tell the sex. It seems like the specimen died alone, but not due to the cruelty of its friends, but because Cicada Killer Wasps are solitary wasps. (The majority of wasp species are.)
Cicada Killer Wasps tend to hang around near August when cicadas are more active.
Here's a video of a Cicada Killer Wasp hanging out with a cicada, so you can imagine what this majestic fella was like while it was alive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1S0Lfzsx7c

-guillermo

additional resources: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/galveston./beneficials/beneficial-03_cicada_killer_wasp.htm
http://www.wasps-hornets.info/cicada-killer-wasps.htm