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Project Noah Nature School
Ichneumonidae
I ask John La Salle help to ID this wasp. It emerged from a pupal Lycaenidae. It would be a Trigonalidae?
Spotted on Jun 19, 2015
Submitted on Jun 19, 2015
9 Comments
Done! Thanks John La Salle. :)
Yes, pity. Trigonalids have such a cool biology. I think you can safely call this an ichneumonid. Your pictures are great - keep them coming.
Okay, John La Salle. You are great. Thank you for your help and effort to ID this wasp. Much appreciated. I learn a lot from your comments and information. I'm a bit disappointed, I wish he was a trigonalid so I could talk about hyperparasitism in Brazil the lepidopteran group. Many thanks again. I'll edit the spotting. :)
Sckel- Sorry but it looks like this is probably not a trigonalid. I had to send this to a couple of people who know far more about these wasps than I do. Here is the response from one of them
"I went back to the picture several times - it doesn't look like a trigo to me. I've never seen one with this color and general appearance from the Neotropics (or anywhere). Wing venation would tell, as you mention, but from what I can see, there is no costal cell in the forewing. In one picture, I can almost make out an areolet in the forewing, but maybe not. Also, the enlarged hind legs, shape of the metasoma, and head not enlarged behind the eyes are not trigonalid-like. Trigonalids would have smaller eyes and the head quite enlarged behind the eyes, and I've never seen one with enlarged hind legs.
Maybe not too helpful, but that's about all I can tell and am quite certain its not Trigonalidae."
No problem with your photographs - they are beautiful. It is just that some things you need to look at under a microscope.
Yes it does look very similar to your other spotting.
I found a Cyanophrys caterpillar hidden in a hibiscus button. I collected it. Two days later she became pupa, two weeks later, I realized that the pupa moved, I took to the yard, to the birth of the butterfly, to my surprise, was born this wasp. It was all very fast, I did not how to make better photos. Sorry, I could not photograph the detail of wings, it is too small for the capacity of the my camera. Looks like this wasp photographed in 2014.
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/133...
Yes I was overseas for a while and then swamped when I got back, so I wasn't checking in. Trigonalids are very rarely collected. I had a look at a couple of books to figure out what their best characters are - but these have to do with wing venation and the feet, and are hard to see on your pictures. So you pretty much have to know the group well enough to recognise species. I will see if I can get some colleagues to comment or give me some advice. The biology of trigonalids is very strange - and yes hyperparasitism is quite interesting and not that uncommon. For the most part it is pretty straightforward, but some cases can get very strange. For example, some Aphelinidae have species where the males are hyperparasitic on females of their own species.
Hi John La Salle, I'm glad you came, I was expecting your comment to verifying family this wasp, but thought you would not come, so I edited the spotting with information found on a website. I am very interested in the hyperparasitism. In entomology groups and FB arthropods no entomologist know about this wasp. Thank you for your comment.
Hi Sckel
Beautiful wasp - and nice series of pictures.
I must admit I am not sure whether it is a Trigonalid or an Ichneumonid.
I will try to get some additional input.