Twisted-winged Parasite on Paper Wasp - Xenos - BugGuide.Net

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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Twisted-winged Insects (Strepsiptera) » Stylopidae » Xenos

Photo#9262

Copyright © 2004 Tony DiTerlizzi

Twisted-winged Parasite on Paper Wasp - Xenos

Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, USA
November 15, 2004

Close up of this individual:

Showing as much detail as possible, but these parasites are TINY and hard to shoot with a hand-held camera.

I believe it is a female Twisted-Winged insect, possibly family Stylopidae, but if anyone can shed light on this, I'd love to hear more. I witnessed many Polistes wasps with these parasites in the abdomen, some with more than one!

This photo was taken at the Frenchman's Forest Natural Area.

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Contributed by Tony DiTerlizzi on 23 December, 2004 - 8:48am
Last updated 8 July, 2009 - 6:52pm

Moved

Moved from Twisted-winged Insects.

… Tony DiTerlizzi, 8 July, 2009 - 6:52pm

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parasite

I also noticed (several) parasite on a male polistes carolina several months back. Unfortunately, at the time I had no idea they were parasites, so I didn't bother getting a scan and assumed it was just a sickly wasp who was down on his luck. I can't remember exactly what it looked like, but it was lodged in the adominal area much like the one in your photo.
Good shot, by the way!

… spezzafer, 30 April, 2005 - 1:13am

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Wow

I've read about these but I've never noticed a wasp that appeared to be hosting them. Thanks for sharing. Now I'll be looking more closely!

… Troy Bartlett, 23 December, 2004 - 9:07am

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I agree, Wow

I agree. Wow! A great find. I actually prefer the other picture for showing this little hitchhiker (couldn't see much in the shadows of this image).

I don't usually chill insect subjects, but this might be one instance where chilling could be used to get a photo that couldn't be got otherwise—one showing the details of the parasite's body.

--Stephen

Stephen Cresswell
Buckhannon, WV
www.stephencresswell.com

… Stephen Cresswell, 23 December, 2004 - 2:03pm

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Twisted-Winged Parasites

I couldn't make heads-or-tails out of the parasite's body, so I did a quick web-search. I Found a cool article with many great shots here at the Tree of Life website.

… Tony DiTerlizzi, 23 December, 2004 - 8:58am

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ID of strepsipteran parasite

This Strepsipteran is almost certainly the genus Xenos (Strepsiptera: Family Stylopidae, Subfamily Xeninae), as that is the only genus of Strepsipteran known from Polistes in the United States.

… Ceuthophilus, 18 March, 2005 - 8:19am

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