#leucospidae

Chalcidoid wasp, Leucospis dorsigera, Leucospidae

Found throughout Europe, this species is a parasitoid of certain wasps and bees. Photos 1-4 show a female ovipositing her eggs into wood that contains larvae of a host species.

My favourite wasps I have seen this summer

A lovely little chalcid that got stuck in some water and walked around a petri dish I was holding while she dried off

The gorls! Cynips divisa and C. longiventris on the same tree, featuring some bonus Macrodiplosis pustularis midge galls

Chalcids chalcids chalcids (first one is an encyrtid)

A cute ichneumonoid that showed up for my birthday picnic, and some Chrysis viridula hanging around potter wasp nests

A strange one which I think may be an ichneumonoid but I haven't seen any others with pitted carapaces like that, and my good friend the red legged spider wasp (Episyron rufipes). Their strength knows no bounds

Three Nemka viduata. I saw velvet ants for the first ever time this year and ended up seeing quite a few before going back home, including this male which I happened to catch near a female. What a wild size difference and what gorgeous wasps

Two more new families for me, an ensign wasp (Evaniidae) and a bembicid, although this Bembecinus is actually the second I found

My pfp, an emerald cuckoo wasp (Stilbum cyanurum) I just barely got a photo of (I'm as surprised as you are that it's identifiable to species) and one of the largest wasps I've seen, Sphex pruinosus

Two potter wasps, a Eumenes sp. (probably mediterranneus) and Delta unguiculatum

A carrot wasp (Gasteruption sp.) with a shorter tail than the ones I'm used to, fittingly sipping away at a carrot species, and my first beewolf (Philanthus triangulum), which I've been hoping to find for a long time, they're fascinating

A eupelmid I thought looked interesting and a classic wauce lauste in the sauce (Vespula germanica)

Bighead baby. A crabronid that looks about as ridiculous as all crabronids and a European hornet (Vespa crabro) going to town on an ash cicada (Cicada orni), which freaked my family out

I got to see the wasp that first got me into wasps, a Leucospid wasp, in person today for the first time!!! These wasps are in the superfamily Chalcidoidea, family Leucospidae, and they are external parasitoids of certain species of other hymenoptera! This one is likely Leucospis affinis, based on the area it was found (Oregon, USA), but I am not certain on that ID. There are currently around 130 known species, and fossils of them that date back to the early Miocene era (5.3 to 23 million years ago!) The thin little thing laying tucked up on her abdomen is an ovipositor, which she uses to lay eggs in host larvae. Leucospids are important for regulating populations of wasps, solitary bees, and others and their presence in the ecosystem indicates a relatively healthy population of their hosts. Learn more here

A new family for me, just chilling (dead) on our floor!