Colorful Aphid Wasp? - Diplazon laetatorius

Ant

Looks like the ant is trying to protect its aphids by getting after the Diplazon, which, ironically, is also protecting the aphids by attacking the syrphid predtors.

… Bob Carlson, 10 October, 2014 - 2:17pm

Bob, what are those white things?

Are they aphid mummies, or are they larvae? And in the last photo (sorry about the focus) is the wasp ovipositing?

… Arthur Scott Macmillan, 11 October, 2014 - 12:07am

Arthur, you may have already

Arthur, you may have already figured this out, but if not, the white things in the photo are just exuviae of aphid nymphs.

… John Schneider, 3 April, 2017 - 10:17pm

Thanks, John S.! It's true...

I did finally get that, but they are very strange in appearance! Our rainy season is still going strong in Santa Cruz, California. That bodes well for the prospect of many and varied insects in the coming year!

… Arthur Scott Macmillan, 12 April, 2017 - 3:28am

1007651

She appears to be ovipositing in image 1007651, and what she would be ovipositing into would be a larva (though some species can oviposit into the egg) of an aphidophagous syrphid.

… Bob Carlson, 12 October, 2014 - 8:05pm

Thanks for explaining!

It's kind of mind boggling that a wasp can be so much larger than the thing it is ovipositing into. I assume it is a Syrphid larva, and it will get much larger. What I think of as a Syrphid larva is huge. Larger than the wasp here, even before it pupates. In fact, I have photos of what I think is a large syrphid larva that I want to upload, that were found at this same location. I have to admit what the Syrphid looks like in the pre-adult states, and how it attains the necessary size to pupate are a bit of a mystery to me.

… Arthur Scott Macmillan, 13 October, 2014 - 12:04am

Comparative Size

Diplazon laetatorius is thought to be the most widely distributed species of Ichneumonidae, and a list of nearly 60 syrphid associates are listed on TaxaPad. I did a search on oviposition and found an abstract of a paper showing that that the species showed a strong preference for first instars of Allograpta exotica in Argentina.

… Bob Carlson, 13 October, 2014 - 5:55pm

Interesting as allograpta exotica is a species I've

Thanks, Bob! That's particularly interesting because allograpta exotica is a species I've seen a lot of lately. I guess the next thing is to see what the first instar looks like! Hopefully, that won't prove too difficult!

… Arthur Scott Macmillan, 13 October, 2014 - 8:14pm

Moved

Moved from Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies.

… Arthur Scott Macmillan, 10 October, 2014 - 2:27am

Hover fly parasite…

I suspect this one may be more focused on the syrphid fly larvae in the area - the same syrphid larvae that love to consume these aphids.

See reference here.

… Ross Hill, 10 October, 2014 - 1:52am

Checking it out I see you put me on the right track.

Thanks Ross, I was way off on this one. I was a little suspicious of the aphid wasp ID due to the larger than expected size of the wasp, and its colorful markings, but, you have to take a shot sometimes. Now I know!

… Arthur Scott Macmillan, 10 October, 2014 - 2:21am

There was a definite aphid fest going on here!

Thanks for the link, I will take a look, meanwhile you may notice I decided to add a fifth photo, if it helps any. I also saw no less that 5 different species of ladybugs, and at least three species of ladybug larvae along with some flies and a couple more wasps. I suspect the aphids took heavy losses!

… Arthur Scott Macmillan, 10 October, 2014 - 2:06am