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Photo#449349
Family Braconidae - Braconid Wasps Female - female

Family Braconidae - Braconid Wasps Female - Female
Lyndhurst, Leeds & Thousand Island, Ontario, Canada
August 28, 2010
Size: 5-6mm
found at a bioblitz, any I.D. would be great

Images of this individual: tag all
Family Braconidae - Braconid Wasps Female - female Family Braconidae - Braconid Wasps Female  - female

What plant?
Sometimes identifying the plant will tell you the host insect which is the wasp's real target, and if the wasp is picky about its hosts you may get an ID of the wasp.

 
What plant
It spend time on a almost dry Pasture Thistle(Cirsium pumilum).Hope this helps.
Thanks for taking time to find the I.D.

 
Cirsium moths
Quoting http://www.illinoiswildflowers.info/savanna/tables/table37.htm, some Cirsium-flowerhead feeding caterpillars are Autographa precationis, Dicymolomia julianalis, Grammia parthenice, Phlogophora iris, Platyptilia carduidactyla, Pyrausta subsequalis, and Scythris eboracensis. Unfortunately, these are diverse.

 
-
Checked these hosts in the 1979 Hymenoptera catalog, but didn't come up with any species that would appear to match these images. Although my ignorance of Braconidae is relatively complete, I am guessing a species in the subfamily Agathidinae. Agathis malvacearum, for example, oviposits in an analogous sort of seed head.

Moved
Males don't have ovipositor sheaths, and it looks like the female is ovipositing here.

Moved from Ichneumon Wasps.

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