The Monday Mystery returns this week with a straight-up identification challenge:
Who is this unusual animal?
I will award 8 Myrmecos Points to the first person to guess the family, and 2 points to the first to pick the sex.
The cumulative points winner for the month of June will win their choice of 1) any 8×10-sized print from my photo galleries, or 2) a guest post here on Myrmecos.
Good luck!
Sphecidae (Thread-wasted wasp)?
straight up guess because I am too lazy to hunt at all tonight…
Chalcidae, male.
Female! Wasp of some kind, no idea of family
Actually I think it is a Thread-waisted wasp – Sphecidae
Way cool, a stephanid! Family is Stephanidae. They are parasitic on wood-boring insects. Has to be male because females have a long ovipositor.
Yeah, Stephanidae has got to be right – what a cool wasp!
Eric beat me to any points, but I might as well throw the species in there: Megischus bicolor!
Everybody beat me to everything, but I’ll bet I’m the only one to have reared these – I’ve gotten quite a few over the years from my rearings of wood-boring beetles.
Do you ever rear Heterospilus braconid wasps?
I’ve got two Schmidt boxes crammed full of braconids and other wood-boring beetle-reared hymenopterans. Nothing has been ID’d below family – it’s all just waiting for some ambitious hymenopterist!
You could try Dr. Wharton’s lab at Texas A&M University.
related to this girl?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/margarethebrummermann/5831302759/in/photostream
Stephanidae? It looks like a male wasp.
Late as usual, but very cool beastie!
I have to point out I did think it was probably a male but I had a chance of two points if it was an odd sort of wasp!
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wow, strangely pretty wasp!
As a side note, has anyone ever heard of a common name for these wasps? They’re some of my favorite little hymes (at least aesthetically) and what with their graceful shape and little crown, I personally suggest ‘princess wasps.’