Revretch revretch near the wall, will you tell us of the prettiest wasp of all (in your personal opinion)
Sorry for the delay answering this, but I just couldn't pick one!
I guess towards the top of my list would have to be the tarantula hawk. Reddish gold wings, iridescent blue sheen, curly antennae, and the classic hourglass wasp shape--how can you beat that?! (And of course, an overall impressive wasp in terms of behavior as well. The way they take on tarantulas is like if you took on a grizzly bear with venomous fangs in a fistfight!)
A less formidable parasitoid, but I'm partial to chalcidids like this Conura species. Love the big, hooked back legs, the elaborate stripes, and the pretty eyes (including the three very visible ocelli, like a princess's tiara)!
Parasitoid on gall wasps, the Torymus genus is another good one. Love the stinger like a little bunny tail!
A parasitoid of black widow eggs, the Baeus wasp is not only the cutest wasp, imho, but possibly the cutest insect.
And of course there's the incredibly striking orchid dupe wasp! Deep red with a black-and-white striped abdomen, iridescent blue wings, and bright pink eyes! It looks majestic enough you wouln't suspect that the males of this species are duped into mating with *three* different kinds of orchids pretending to be female wasps. I wonder how female orchid dupes feel about that?
There's no denying the gorgeous silhouettes of thread-waisted wasps...
And of course, you can't beat the classic paper wasp.
