Platygastridae, apterous wasp #4

Moved

… Charley Eiseman, 30 October, 2009 - 3:44pm

Terminology

Do you mean brachypterous or apterous? Brachypterous means short winged -- you can see wings but they are too short to be functional. Apterous means wingless. In one family of flies both forms occur, with brachypterous possibly being an evolutionary step towards apterous.

… John F. Carr, 15 February, 2009 - 5:40pm

Thank you. On this one I mean

Thank you. On this one I think I mean apterous. But I can't quite see if there is a little something there that is remnant of wings.

… MJ Hatfield, 15 February, 2009 - 5:50pm

Moved

Moved from Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies.

… MJ Hatfield, 15 February, 2009 - 5:38pm

Scelionidae (Teleasini) - male

Most likely genus Trimorus.
I have suspected for long that these tiny flightless wasps actually lose their wings some time after emerging, a bit like ant queens (see my comment under a post by Tom Murray).
But I'd not considered the possibilty that trapping itself could be the cause. If so, wings should be recovered from the liquid.

… Richard Vernier, 15 February, 2009 - 5:09pm

I really didn't think it lost

I really didn't think it lost its wings in the trap but this one trap had 4 species of short winged/no winged wasps. Since I've never even seen a brachypterous wasp before I had to consider the possibility that they might have lost their wings.

When you say "most likely Timorus" does that mean I should move it? Or wait? Thank you.

… MJ Hatfield, 15 February, 2009 - 5:37pm

You'd better wait...

As for the genus level. Only tribal rank (Teleasini) is certain, as males of other Scelionid group have shorter antennae.

… Richard Vernier, 16 February, 2009 - 6:47am