Unidentified wasp or fly

martyjc · #1 (**permalink**) 25-07-2008, 01:15 PM

This fellow suddenly landed on my laptop keyboard today, obviously flown in through the window. Had a look around on the internet but am not sure what he is. Can anyone out there identify it ?

It would be good to at least know if he is a fly or a wasp?

Sorry about the less than great pictures.

thanks

welsh.lensman · #2 (**permalink**) 25-07-2008, 03:55 PM

Hi Martyjc, as you said the photo's are not great, but I believe this is one of the Ichneumons, try googling the name Ichneumon suspiciosus and see if you get a match.

martyjc · #3 (**permalink**) 25-07-2008, 04:04 PM

Aha, thankyou. I googled Ichneumon suspiciosus and as suggested and thats definitely what it is.

This photo in particular shows very clearly thats what it is.

Ichneumon fly (Ichneumon suspiciosus), 28 June 2006

thanks!

naturegirl · #4 (**permalink**) 26-07-2008, 12:04 AM

Why is it called I. suspiciosus?

Naturegirl

Pudding4brains · #5 (**permalink**) 26-07-2008, 10:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by naturegirl

Why is it called I. suspiciosus?

Because it 'suspiciously' looks like this one

Which has remained nameless in spite of Wolfgang Rutkies being very serious about getting correct IDs, which leads me to conclude that there are probably one or more lookalikes that must be hard/impossible to exclude from photo (as usual with Ichneumonids).

But that's all just speculation. I'll ask him why exactly his wasp didn't get a name.

Arp

oxycera · #6 (**permalink**) 26-07-2008, 03:28 PM

nicely put

naturegirl · #7 (**permalink**) 26-07-2008, 05:04 PM

Thanks for that Pudding4brains

Naturegirl

Dogghound · #8 (**permalink**) 27-07-2008, 05:19 PM

Its Ichneumon stramentarius

martyjc · #9 (**permalink**) 27-07-2008, 11:48 PM

Ive had a look at pictures of Ichneumon stramentarius too now, and they look pretty much identical to Ichneumon suspiciosus, so I was wondering what the differnence atually is. Then i found this post on another forum:

ID Required ! - BirdForum

where someone suggests that Ichneumon suspiciosus doesnt't have the yellow band in the antenna. If this is the case then I guess i must have found a Ichneumon stramentarius.

Pudding4brains · #10 (**permalink**) 28-07-2008, 08:42 AM

Howdy,

I think Wolfgang isn't in (vacation?) - hasn't replied yet anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dogghound

Its Ichneumon stramentarius

Are you sure this species (or both?) do(es)n't have any other obscure/rarer lookalikes (as Ichmeunonids usually seem to have) - or are these indeed some of the few that can actually be ID-ed? Would be nice