Male, with female also present
This has been an interesting learning curve for me. Bought on by me always being curious. Plus some mistaken thinking. Although, I have photographed little wasps on this Ootheca over the last few months, I didn’t relate the tiny holes in the Ootheca to them. Instead I thought it meant the baby Praying Mantis had emerged out of them.
So, thinking it was old and empty, I wanted to see what it looked like on the inside. I was not prepared for what I found.
Inside I found the larvae of Genus Podagrion. The first two images are clearly female showing the unmistakable Ovipositor. As for the other images I’m not sure if some are just shedded skins. Not having a microscope I couldn’t tell. I put the Ootheca back together as best I could.The next morning I had one wasp.
Over the next few days 3 more hatched. All have been released now. I also learned that the little holes in the Ootheca, are made by the female’s Ovipositor piercing through the Ootheca to deposit her eggs, onto the Mantis eggs, for them to feed on.
Found inside old hollowed out flower stem of a kangaroo paws.
Ichneumonid Wasp
Identified as Ichneumonidae on Bowerbird by Ken Walker: "Difficult one to place to family. The structure of the antenna (swollen scape with remainder small) and the extensive hind wing venation points to Ichneumonidae."
At least three wasps m & Fe emerged amongst the spiderlings from this egg-case today.
Sighting and photos (c) ejp007.
Field Notes - found on paper bark tree
Multiple individuals observed feeding on this flowering Asteraceae (Apowollastonia hamersleyensis)
For a week or more, these colourful wasps have been gathering over a sandy patch of the forest floor, circling, landing, and regularly ovipositing into the soil. This is one of the two that I collected for identification.
See also this field sighting:
https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/185209940
This species is quite unlike the braconids we commonly see here.
[collection ref: 2309L]
For full details see my workbook page:
https://southernforestlife.net/notes/2023/9/24/braconidae-braconinae
At the white night lights set up to attract moths. Rainforest Patch.
Female. Body 12mm long
Ovipositor 9mm long
At the white night lights set up to attract moths. Rainforest Patch.
6m long.
Tiny wasp
About 1cm long .Caught in the shade house and released .This is the second one of these Ive caught unless its the same one .@headsoup
At the white night lights set up to attract moths. Rainforest Patch.
10mm body 4mm ovipositor
About 1cm long .Caught in the shade house and released
I collected this specimen, more photos to come.
Helconinae?
Two wasps ovipositing into a bundle of stuck together leaves
presumably containing a lepidopteran pupa or pupae. This is on an Acacia Implexa.
The following times refer to wasp 1, on the left, based on a series of photos. Wasp 2, on the right, landed at about
the same time or earlier but left briefly a couple of times. Wasp 1 was in the same position whenever I looked.
11:13:25 wasp 1 lands
11:14:16 wasp 1 ovipositor in position
11:16:37 wasp 1 ovipositor unsheathed
11:25:09 (photo 1 - chosen as it is the best photo showing both wasps)
11:57:39 wasp 1 ovipositor fully inserted for the first time in my photos - wasp 2 not present (photo 2)
12:04:30 wasp 1 still in position
was not watching in this interval during which wasp 1 departed
12 21 59 wasp 2 still ovipositing. I left at this point
So in summary it took wasp 1 somewhere between 51 and 68 minutes to complete oviposition.
Sample from Malaise trap, Aranda, ACT, Australia, 22-29 April 2022
Gauld 1984 comments that Chandra 1976 is too incomplete to use for identifying the Australian Lissonota species, but this one seems so distinctive and completely to match Chandra's description and illustration (which I have attached to this observation).
Black-headed Orange Parasite Wasp, Stiromesostenus sp., Family Ichneumonidae
Unid Wasp
Identified as Ichneumonidae on Bowerbird by Ken Walker
Collected parasitized Blue Triangle Butterfly larvae from in my garden and this is the wasp which hatched out.
Length (head to distal apex of wings) ca. 7-9 mm long.
One individual seen.
A difficult wasp to get a photo of as it was very active and did not stop moving rapidly backwards and forwards across a tree trunk.
This bee is feeding on the spadix of an aroid plant.
Stuffing paralyzed caterpillar into hole
In the pool pond .
In what I think is a Cryptachaea veruculata retreat
Sample from Malaise trap, Aranda, ACT, Australia, 18-25 March 2022
Attracted to light at night in suburban back yard.