Dave McGrath sent me these pics today of an insect at Marshside earlier this month - I think I've seen the critter before down there, but tend to only really look closely at butterflies, coneheads, dragonflies and the odd bee...
Dave explains: "The wasp was seen at the Sandplant compound around lunch time on Sun 4th November and photographed by my mate Raf Lapoto with his phone!
Anyone any ideas on its ID?"
Nice looking beastie, can anyone tell us what it is?
It looks a bit like one of the species of parasitic wasp/ichneumon flies that I get in the moth trap at Dempsey Towers occasionally, but that's about as far as my knowledge of these things go.....
Eyes to the skies everyone, eyes to the skies...
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hi john,the insect could be a gall wasp of some sort.it appears to be perched on a gall on some plant. there are hundreds of these wasps, sawflies ect with most books just covering a few species.shall keep digging.
mike.
This is an Ichneumonid; the nearest I can get to it is Pimpla hypochondriaca, which is a very common endoparasite of moth larvae and pupae, especially the Snout (Hypena proboscidalis).
As you would expect, however, there are several related species.
It is definitely a member of the Hymenoptera Parasitica - an Ichneumon Wasp.
With its black body and orange-red legs it looks like Pimpla investigator but the vast majority fo Parasitica need to be keyed to obtain a 'definite' identification. They are not easy !
Cheers
Steve J. McWilliam
www.rECOrd-LRC.co.uk
Impressive - thanks for the information gentlemen.
Hi Just caught one of those parasitic red legged critters in my house settled on the white plastic front door.
Your enquiries have identified it for me thanks.
John
John, what was your outcome? Did you get an ID for this one? I am also trying to ID a very similar species. Thanks
JD: Hi Rachel, it is one of the Ichneumonids....far too confusing for the likes of a mere mortal like me.