I cannot be the only one who has ever been completely confused by what I see before me.
For example, it took me a long time to stop photographing the wrong ends of these, because I kept thinking they were fireflies.
This took me a long time to settle on likely fly but even so I still hesitated so set it at Winged Insects. (I should have gone with my gut!)
I truly thought this was a very nervous bee with just really long arms who had learned to snatch pollen. It was one of the coolest things I have ever witnessed.
Kindly note that these are years ago. I have improved in my general knowledge skillset; just now I plonked something at Fly rather than Winged Insects. Whee!
(Also I have a better cameraphone.)
Has anyone else ever completely mistaken one thing for another then later felt a bit daft?
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The short answer is YES!!I can understand your confusion, those are tough! It will take a bit before I can look for an example…
I cannot tell the bumbles apart and so they are all bombus. I love that some really are called perplexing bumblebee!
I do refrain from IDing them that way.
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I definitely thought this Wasp Mantidfly was some sort of wasp-mimicking mantis. Then after seeing the name, I assumed it was a fly mimicking as a wasp-mimicking mantis. But it isn’t a wasp, a mantis, or a fly.
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The first thing that comes to mind for me is this observation which I think might be Hyleoglomeris koreana, a type of millipede in Superorder Oniscomorpha that mimics Oniscideans (aka pill bugs, woodlice, roly-polies, armadillo bugs, butcher bugs, etc. in English).
While taking that photo I thought it was a pill bug so got quite a surprise when I later learned about pill millipedes.
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taxon picture makes it look as if built of Lego blocks!!
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At first glance I thought this spider was some kind of obscure jumping spider. So I chased it through long grass for five minutes this evening, trying to get a clear shot of it, the poor thing. It’s a lynx spider.
Still very cool and mildly rare, mind you. But not exactly the first known photograph of a living specimen I was hoping for.
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I had the same experience when I found my first Danaus plexippus larva 
in my yard! I knew what it was, but was focused on the wrong end, and was further embarrassed to discover that the thing it had seemed “interested in”, was actually its poop!
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It’s true I have too many photos of larva butts by mistake.
These are confusing to me, it seems I have to relearn them every year.
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