Weird Wasp?

[veggiesosage]

Hi, new poster here.

This fairly impressive creature found its way into the house today





Any idea exactly what it is? I presume it's some kind of wasp but can't find anything in usual interwebs searching.

Thanks in advance all

[Geoff F]

It looks like one of the Ichneumon Wasps but getting an actual species identification is very difficult with this large family.

[veggiesosage]

Thanks for that Geoff. Had a search around on that and got the impression that those generally have large ovipositors? Although as you say, with so many species there's prob many that don't.

[Jason Green]

Morning V, and welcome to WAB!

Only females have ovipositors, though they don't always have them externally-showing. It's often the shape of the tip that helps in grouping them classificationally, and it's worth mentioning we have aout 2,000+ species in the UK alone.

The domain of super-experts, really.

Take care,

Jason

[veggiesosage]

Ok, thanks very much both, looks like that's as far as we'll get ID wise then. Cheers for the help.

[Dogghound]

Sub-family Ichneumoninae if that helps.

[veggiesosage]

Thanks, I think it might have done. May have found a match, any opinions?

This one is from the US, no info whether also found in UK.

[Jason Green]

Hi Veggie,

As I said, these are a pretty exclusive group; I can only think of two-three or so British workers. Picture-matching isn't an option with these - you need a 40x stereo-microscope to check wings, surface structures, lines, pigmentation-less wing patches etc.

Even the key to the British sub-families is in about 100+ stages! There are some nice pictures out there but I think only five-or-so that most of us could do on the basis of colour-patterns alone. Be wary of named field-images.

[nikolai_avenger]

Indeed, I can second what Jason says. There are but a handful of readily identifiable species, and good luck with the rest.

I can recommend the Hymis forum, I've had a few successfully id'd on there, although not necessarily to species level.

I'd certainly be very interested if you get to find out a name for this one.

Cheers. Nik.

[veggiesosage]

Thanks again folks. Might give that other forum a look but I suspect that Dogghound's sub-family ID is prob as far as we'll get.

Cheers all.