Doin the Dirty - Halictoxenos

Moved

Moved from Twisted-winged Insects.

… v belov, 4 January, 2014 - 11:20pm

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… John F. Carr, 2 July, 2013 - 9:49pm

A parasitoid wasp?

Antennae of "male" appear different. A chalcidoid?

… William Donald Newton, 17 June, 2013 - 10:09am

parasite, rather: a male strepsipteran...

...impregnating his grublike mate that sticks out of the host bee's abdomen.
what a lucky shot!

… v belov, 17 June, 2013 - 10:16am

Presumably the genus is Halictoxenos

http://www.life.illinois.edu/pollinatarium/Bulletin_board/Bee_natural_enemies/

… John S. Ascher, 17 June, 2013 - 9:39pm

awesome, thanks --makes perfect sense

i would like to have this photo moved tentatively to the Halictoxenos page that is still empty(1); what do you think?

… v belov, 18 June, 2013 - 8:46am

Yes. This is likely Halictoxe

Yes. This is likely Halictoxenos. Lasioglossum are parasitized by that genus.

… Kevin Moran, 4 January, 2014 - 10:34pm

AHA!

Very lucky, indeed! Where was this bee when I needed it?!!

… William Donald Newton, 17 June, 2013 - 10:52am

Wish they were still together

Wish they were still together when I went back out 15 minutes later!!! Would have loved to have gotten more images of them...

… Scott Ditzel, 17 June, 2013 - 10:57am

well... we have this precious shot after all...

great job catching them in flagranti -- thanks, Scott

… v belov, 17 June, 2013 - 11:34am

Wow!

Having handled thousands of bee specimens, it's rare enough to see a single bee with a parasite sticking out of it--this is an incredible shot!! Good thing it was you who happened upon it--my camera would not have done this phenomenon justice.
The tiny bee is a Lasioglossum in the subgenus Dialictus.

… Keng-Lou James Hung, 17 June, 2013 - 2:38pm

I found another instance of t

I found another instance of the same bees this year. Posted the image over on Bug Guide's Facebook page...

… Scott Ditzel, 3 August, 2014 - 7:33pm

Again today I got yet another

Again today I got yet another image of the same insects copulating, with the female in the abdomen of the larger bee

… Scott Ditzel, 17 August, 2014 - 11:46am

Well, after not seeing any of

Well, after not seeing any of the small bees for a few weeks, I found another one today with a Halictoxenos on it !!.... I'm really surprised that no one else has any images of them... I did see a link to video of a male Halictoxenos copulating with a female, but not any other still images...

… Scott Ditzel, 11 September, 2014 - 1:29pm