Ichneumon Wasps and Other Beauties

The first ichneumon was found molesting cinnabar moth caterpillars feasting on our ragwort - parasitoid and host.

Barylypa propugnator and Tyria jacobaeae on Jacobaea vulgaris

The second (very much smaller one) was found on nasturtium and is a parasitoid of aphidophagous hoverflies and there are plenty of black-fly on the nasturtiums to satisfy a small army of hoverfly larvae.

Diplazon laetatorius male

This wasp is not an ichneumon wasp, it is a Gasteruptid of the family Gasteruptidae in the super-family Evanioidea, as opposed to being in the family Ichneumonidae in the super-family Ichneumonoidea!  It does not inject eggs into its hosts.  Its hosts are solitary bees and wasps and it detects bee grubs in their burrows or bee hotels and injects an egg into the cell.  The result is the same - the egg hatches and consumes pollen and nectar from the cell and then the bee grub so the grub is eaten from the outside rather than from the inside.

Gasteruption jaculator which means stomach erupting javelin thrower!

I have found some really beautiful insects recently - an hemipteran with amazing antennae, an orthopteran with amazing antennae, and a very common but no less beautifully antennaed lepidopteran.  See below.

The orthopteran - Long-winged conehead nymph - Conocephalus fuscus

The lepidopteran - Common blue butterfly - Polyommatus icarus

The hemipteran - Heterotoma planicornis

April 2020 - other species

When we put out the moth trap, it was nearly a full moon so we didn't get much of a catch - only 4 species, two of which we'd not had before.  The streamer (Anticlea derivata) is a common species, as is the narrow-winged grey (Eudonia angustea).

Narrow-winged Grey

Streamer

Two identifications for the price of one in this life and death picture of a female ambush spider (Misumena vatia) fangs deep into the hoverfly (Eristalis arbustorum)(a new species).  I saw the dead fly first and picked it up to try and identify it - but the spider wasn't intending to let go of her lunch so she came with it.

The Pine Ladybird is a common species but I've only seen it here since last year.  It's a very small ladybird and could be mistaken for the 2-spot Ladybird.  The main distinguishing feature apart from the different spot shapes is that the pine ladybird has a noticeable flange around the elytra (wing cases).

Pine Ladybird

The hoverflies were well represented this month.  Epistrophe eligans is another new species for the garden.  Note that we are currently on Covid-19 lock-down, so the number of new species will rise this year because I have more time to look for and identify them.