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Photo#626679
Tiny wasp on Coreid eggs

Tiny wasp on Coreid eggs
Picture Rocks, NW of Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, USA
April 3, 2012

Images of this individual: tag all
Tiny wasp on Coreid eggs Tiny wasp on Coreid eggs

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Platygastrid
on pentatomid eggs.

 
Thaks Charley
I assumed Coreid eggs because this pair of Chelinidea sp.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/margarethebrummermann/7043528915/in/photostream
was with the eggs.

 
Coreid eggs...
all seem to take one of these two forms, more or less:

I've seen the latter type on cactus spines in Tucson, but those may have been Acanthocephala. I'm not sure which type Chelinidea makes. The two types are both laid "lying down," with the perforated "lid" off-center from the axis of the egg. Pentatomid eggs are barrel-shaped, deposited standing on end, and have a perforated opening that is centered around the axis of the egg. Unfortunately we are viewing these eggs from the bottom and can't see this opening, but on the egg the wasp is probing with its antennae (in both photos) I can just barely make out the short micropylar processes that delineate this opening. Coreid eggs never have these processes, as far as I know, while pentatomids may have none, very short ones, or very long ones (e.g. Podisus).

 
Maybe I can raise them
at least see what might hatch (provided they aren't all parasitized. I'm curious now. I have photos from all sides of the eggs. I'll check whether there is more to see in any one

 
re: Platygastridae…
Gryon is a known example mentioned in the literature of a scelionid that attacks Chelinidea. Telenomus will also attack coreid eggs. Both are very similar structurally. I would suggest leaving at the family level for now.

See reference here.

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