#pteromalidae

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

upon spotting a little atom of a creature on an oak gall, i rushed over hoping it'd be an emerging gall wasp, something i've never seen before. instead it turned out to be this little chalcid (probably Pteromalidae), who was very reluctant to leave the gall she was perching on. as a parasitoid, it's possible that either she was looking for a spot to oviposit or had just recently emerged herself. whatever the reason, i never would've been able to casually photograph a 2mm long flying bug if she hadn't been so attached to that gall

Submitter comment: "this is a personal favorite of mine. the moby dick reference is well-deserved for the task of reworking what was essentially a burning dumpster fire of a taxon"

source

here's some other impressive species in the same genus: