#gasteruptiidae

As the year comes to a close I wish to inundate you all with some of the coolest, prettiest or strangest wasp photos uploaded to iNat this year, inspired by @cathartidae's wauce blasts

Gonatopus and liopterid

Gasteruption and Cameronella

Eumenine and Smicromorpha doddi

Ammophila wrightii and Stilbula

Pelecinus polyturator and Chrysis viridula

Tracheliodes curvitarsis and Oxyscelio

Orasema and Apoica pallens

Scelionids and Feron kingi

Neotriadomerus and Phlebopenes

Euplectromorpha variegata and chalcids

Antron douglasii and Stylaclista

Synergus and Obenbergerella

Elasmosoma and Polistes dominula

Odontophotopsis melicausa and Stizus texanus

Stypiura and Radumeris tasmaniensis

There's no need to be afraid of the ghost wasp-- unless you're a bee that is! Also known as the Mam-Burrumurl wasp, this newly discovered species was named for its distinctive 'floating' flight pattern. While they aren't a threat to humans, they can give quite a fright to bees; female ghost wasps lay their eggs inside bee hives, and when the wasp larvae emerge they eat the larvae and eggs of the resident bees.

Carrot Wasps with a Gondwanan distribution, that parasitise the nests of ground-nesting solitary bees. To do so they lay their eggs in the burrow of the bee, or on flowers or in soil near the nest.

Urgent: You need to see this sexy parasitic wasp girl!

*Showing pretty eyes after successfully parasitized her victims in a hole