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Photo#154125
Strepsiptera - Halictophagus - male

Strepsiptera - Halictophagus - Male
Spring Green Preserve SNA, Sauk County, Wisconsin, USA
May 19, 2001
Size: ~2mm
Collected in flight-intercept trap (5-19 May 2001) in sandy oak barrens.

All pics taken with automontage system.

Halictophagus?

Images of this individual: tag all
Strepsiptera - Halictophagus - male Strepsiptera - Halictophagus - male Strepsiptera - Halictophagus - male Strepsiptera - Halictophagus - male Strepsiptera - Halictophagus - male Strepsiptera - Halictophagus - male

Moved

woah
its alien looking... so is this the adult of those little parasite things that you see in the abdomen segments of wasps?

 
yep
This is an adult male. And yep, very alien looking. I see you have some recent pics of your own. Nice find.

See Tree of Life for more info.

 
Great Images Jeff!
I'm anxious to find one of these...someday!

 
Thanks
Thanks Scott.

And best of luck finding a male. I've never encountered a free-flying male in my decade-plus of field work. I've collected several in flight-intercept traps. Best bet probably is to find a male-parasitized Polistes and hold it captive until the male emerges. That's the way I got this one. Only problem is that that one emerged overnight and ended up drowning in the wasp's water dish before I could get live images.

Supposedly you may be able to lure in males with caged female-parasitized Polistes. See this. They also come to light (Ex. here and here).

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