Hi Ken-

Thanks for your suggestion! I haven't had very broad exposure to parasitic apocrita yet and this one departs from the types I am familiar with, so I will have to do some looking...

I just realized by your comment that "amber wasp" could refer to an insect trapped in tree sap and solidified there, over the course of thousands of years! I actually have such a preserved insect, and it never occurred to me to photograph it - Not a wasp, but a winged ant.

In this case the amber color originates in the wasp. It is sort of similar to the color of some small flies. This wasp committed suicide in the manner of insects who fall in love with outdoor light fixtures, but it seemed to interesting to leave behind, so I collected it and took the photo.

I see - the amber is the color!! I got a bit thrown because it looks like this insect is trapped in some fluid or something... Not at all confident about Ichneumoidae - I just noticed that the antennae is long and with many antennomeres, which is OK for ich*ae

...As you can see, it is just barely in a drop of water. I was using a tuperware container to move some insects inside, and it had just begun sprinkling. I may experiment with this in the future, because it sort of brings the insect back to life, in a manner of speaking. Not that I do a lot of shooting of dead insects, but when I have, I have been disappointed to find that they tend to look very dusty and dirty. This seems like an improvement to me.

Re -Ichneumonoidea
This is one of the areas where most entomologists fear to tread. There seems to be a huge number of species worldwide, and at least a very large number in North America. Determining this wasp's family could probably be scored as a success.

This is almost certainly a Braconidae. I think it is in the subfamily Euphorinae, but it would help if the wings were in focus.

Sorry about the condition of the wings - It was not a perfectly preserved specimen! I am going to take a look at Euphorinae. I wonder if the elongated cerci typical for that subfamily. I almost regret that parasitic wasps are so fascinating because it is almost beyond my abilities to photograph them at all!

I believe what you're calling the 'cerci' is actually the wasp's ovipositor. A long ovipositor is typical of (female) braconids and ichneumonids, and when the insect dies and starts to dry out, it splits into three parts like this.

I didn't know that. I assumed this was anatomical. Coincidentally, I came across a slightly better view of the wings.

Since the comments are on this page, I'm posting here, but the associated image with a better view of the wing venation indicates that it is a braconid wasp in the subfamily Meteorinae. It looks like a typical Meteorus sp. They are parasitoids of larval Lepidoptera and Coleoptera.

I didn't expect much from that picture. Wing venation is something I'd like to know at least the basics of.