#1520 - Fam. Ichneumonidae Tribe Phygadeuontini
Under 10mm, shaken out of psyllid-infested eucalypt out at the Dryandra Woodlands.
The Phygadeuontini is part of the Cryptinae subfamily of the Ichneumonid wasps, but Wikipedia claims that there’s 18 genera and 12 described species in Phygadeuontini. I’m sure you can see the problem there. There’s at least 270 in the genus Gelis alone.
I don’t have any information on the tribe in general, but all the ones I’ve been able to track down are parasites of other wasps and sawflies. In fact, both Lysibia nana and Gelis agilis are pupal hyperparasitoids of the Braconid wasp Cotesia glomerata. Cotesia is a parasite of the Cabbage White butterflies, and all three wasps use the same chemical clues to find a host - the alarm chemicals produced by the plant the caterpillar is eating.The hyperparasites show up looking for the wasp the cabbage was hoping for.
