A beautiful Chalcid wasp

Lord V · #1 (**permalink**) 29-03-2010, 10:36 AM

Shot of a beautiful chalcid wasp sitting on my car - crop from a 4:1 mag shot. Around 2.9mm body length.

Brian v.

Bruce Williams · #2 (**permalink**) 29-03-2010, 10:47 AM

Cracking shot Brian - and a very handsome fellow/lass too (the wasp that is)!

Your car has been the source of several of your insect pics - must be giving off a generic pheromone of some type

.

Bruce

Lord V · #3 (**permalink**) 29-03-2010, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bruce Williams

Cracking shot Brian - and a very handsome fellow/lass too (the wasp that is)!

Your car has been the source of several of your insect pics - must be giving off a generic pheromone of some type

.

Bruce

Thanks Bruce.

Think the car has 2 things going for it- firstly it makes it easier to actually spot tiny bugs on a fairly plain surface and secondly it seems to act as a heat trap - once landed the bugs seem to cool down and have trouble taking off again. The car is in the shade at this time of year and a few times I've managed to get these tiny wasps to walk onto a leaf, put the leaf in a sunny spot and they take off straightaway.

Brian v.

Jason Green · #4 (**permalink**) 29-03-2010, 12:54 PM

Afternoon Brian,

I'll tentatively suggest the Encyrtidae family (or similar) on account of the bi-branched pterostigma and large scutellum. These wasps have the same antennae and are often a metallic greeny colour. The size is good too, and within the expected size range.

Take care,

Jason

ChrisR · #5 (**permalink**) 29-03-2010, 01:49 PM

Nice photo ... the coppery colour reminds me of Pteromalus bedeguaris - a parasitoid of Robin's Pincushion galls ... did you park close to any of those?

Lord V · #6 (**permalink**) 29-03-2010, 03:59 PM

Thanks Jason and Chris for the ID ideas

Chris- had to look that gall up

-nothing like that near the car.
Brian V.

Torymus · #7 (**permalink**) 29-03-2010, 05:23 PM

Absolutely beautiful wasp - brilliant! Thanks for showing the photograph. As to ID - Pteromalidae. And I know what you mean about the colour making it look like Pteromalus bedeguaris. However not this species. The antennae are the clue to this - you can see the scape (1st segment) well and the very small annelli can just be seen - there are then 5 funicle segents (F1 F2 ....) before the 3 segmented club at the end. P. bedeguaris has 6 funicle segments and F1 is very long ie longer than wide (the F1 shown is more or less same width as long). However still don't know what it is though - even to genus.