Sawfly for identification

[Sinaves]

Hi,

I saw this sawfly yesterday at Potteric Carr, S Yorks. Please could somebody tell me its genus or species.



Thanks

Ed

[Matt Smith]

Not a sawfly, not with an ovipositor like that. An ichneumon of some sort.

[Sinaves]

Thanks for the help Matt. I thought I had got to grips with telling the difference between sawflies and wasps by going on the size of the waist, but clearly I need to get more experience so I become familiar with what constitutes a narrow one.

[Sinaves]

So with such a big and long ovipositor, would this ichneumon parasitise something quite deep down in tough material, like a beetle grub in wood?

Can anyone attempt to ID the genus or species of this wasp, or is this unrealistic with a poor quality photo?

Thanks

Ed

[nikolai_avenger]

How big was this specimen? It's probably of the sub-family pimplinae but that's about as far as you will get I think, from this photo, due to the sheer number of ichneumon wasp species and the similarity of many of them. A good number of these parasitze the pupal stages of lepidoptera.

I have many such 'uncategorized' photos myself.

Cheers. Nik.

[Sinaves]

Hi Nik,

It was fairly big, too big I think to parasitise a butterfly, but a reasonably large moth caterpillar sounds about right. Can they sting? It was trapped behind a window, so I used a sheet of paper to usher it to freedom. It was big enough to put me off using my hands.

Thanks

Ed

[nikolai_avenger]

I have read somewhere that only some members of ophioninae can sting but I'm not sure if this is correct and certainly wouldn't like to bet against being given a defensive 'jab' by one or two other ichneumon. In your photo, most of that fierce looking 'stinger' is proably just a protective sheath for the ovipositor but I wouldn't fancy tackling one of the larger black and orange species with my hands in any case, and ushering it out with a sheet of paper sounds very much like the course of action I would be taking myself.

Cheers. Nik.

[Sinaves]

Glad I was a wimp then. Thanks for all the info. A google search of pimplinae turns up many photos of ichneumons that look just like the one I saw. I'm pretty pleased to have it identified to subfamily level as that's far better than I could do.

Best wishes

Ed