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I assume this specimen is a hymenoptera, possibly an ichneumon wasp. It is only 15 mm long not including the 8 mm ovipositor (I assume). The face and front 2 pairs of legs are yellow as are the 6 bands on its abdomen. There are 4 spots of yellow on the top of the thorax also. Everything else is black. The membranous clear wings have small black spots on the tips. Wiki says, "There are estimated to be 100,000 species of ichneumonoid wasps in the families Braconidae and Ichneumonidae." So, if this is indeed an ichneumonoid wasp, I don't hold out a lot of hope for a ssp. ID :-) The last foto is of a different individual but is a little clearer in detail.
With no identification, I can't say much about its habitat. This one was found in the evening inside our house in the Amazon rainforest of SE Ecuador.
A very coopertive insect as far as taking pictures. I even bumped it a couple times with the ruler, and outside of taking a couple steps to the side, it didn't seem upset. Unfortunately, identifying it hasn't proven as easy. I assumed it would be easy to ID, but I have had zero possibilities. Hopefully someone can help.
Spotted on Apr 11, 2019
Submitted on Apr 12, 2019
6 Comments
Hi Lindsey. Please thank and encourage your 6-year old. He is right about that not being a stinger but an ovipositor. I doubt there are that many 6-year olds that know that. We will have to keep looking in the Ichneumon family for this ID I think.
Definitely an ichneumon as Tukup mentioned.
After some further research, it doesn't look like Giant Horntails live in the Amazon Rainforest. He is very jealous that you live in the rainforest where there are lots of big insects. We don't have many big ones up here in the northern US.
My 6 year old says he thinks it's a Giant Horntail. He said the thing on the back looks like a stinger, but it's actually just used for laying eggs.
I can't imagine it's an import clear in here, deep in the Amazon. I suppose we can't rule that out, but probably just a little-known native species. Thanks for the effort Neil. I appreciate it.
I've fared no better with an ID. I thought those spots on the wings might help in an image search, but that wasn't to be the case. Do you think it's a native species, or an import? Nice spotting, Tukup.