Wauceposting central

Wasp I spotted making a new home

the ever resilient ensign wasp, parasitoid of cockroach egg cases:

[PHOTOS TAKEN: APRIL 13TH, 2026 | Image IDs: two photos showing the cross section of an "oak apple" gall, with a green outside and fibrous white inside, the core at the center being hard and yellow. The last two show the core cut open to expose the beige larva inside /End IDs.]

Disclaimer!: I would not recommend doing this to oak apples, as neither the oak apple galls nor the wasps that produce them are dangerous to the oak tree, and doing this to an oak apple like this will kill the wasp inside. The only reason why I myself cut this gall open is because 1. The gall had already fallen off of the tree, so it wasn't going to be getting any more nutrients from it, and 2. I wasn't actually initially certain what it was (though I did know it was a gall).

This is a kind of oak apple! It's a gall produced by gall wasps of the family Cynipidae, the larva injects chemicals into a leaf of an oak tree that create this round ball of fibrous plant material, the larva living in the center of this ball and sapping nutrients from the leaf!

Credits: photo 1, photo 2

Cutest parasite around ! Bombylius hoverflies shoot their eggs into the nests of (mostly) mining bees (Andrena), their larvae eat the bee larvae and the pollen stash. The adults are very cute and fluffy and lovely with beautiful wings, last post i reblogged reminded me of them. Like an opposite of the big mean looking guy only kills to feed their offspring - this is sweet fluffy guy deposits eggs in other guys' nests so their offspring can eat them.