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Photo#1186793
Parasitoid associated with burdock seedhead moth hibernacula

Parasitoid associated with burdock seedhead moth hibernacula
Trout Run WMA, Winneshiek County, Iowa, USA
January 27, 2015
A few weeks ago I collected some burdock seedhead hibernacula, constructed by the moth Metzneria lappella, that had been raided by one or more tufted titmice (and possibly other foraging birds). The birds had pecked irregular holes in the hibernacula to get at the moth larvae inside, and I wanted to photograph the damage. Some of the holes pecked in the hibernacula seemed too small to allow passage of the moth larvae, which are quite large and fat. I wondered if these hibernacula had been parasitized and the birds had pecked them open just enough to discover this. Sure enough, one of the first raided hibernacula I tore into harbored this adult wasp, which presumably had metamorphosed in the few weeks since I'd collected the hibernacula and brought them indoors. (Another raided hibernacula held at least 2 wasp pupae/puparia). Numerous similar-looking wasps emerged from intact hibernacula I collected for rearing in 2015 (see below), so I assume this is a parasitoid of the moth.

This being a very small and lively specimen, it was difficult to get sharp photos, so I apologize for that; please feel free to frass any images that won't help with ID.

I think it's way cool that this wasp has grooves in its head into which its antennae can be folded!

Similar-looking parasitoids I reared from burdock hibernacula in 2015:

Images of this individual: tag all
Parasitoid associated with burdock seedhead moth hibernacula Parasitoid associated with burdock seedhead moth hibernacula Parasitoid associated with burdock seedhead moth hibernacula Parasitoid associated with burdock seedhead moth hibernacula Parasitoid associated with burdock seedhead moth hibernacula Parasitoid associated with burdock seedhead moth hibernacula Parasitoid associated with burdock seedhead moth hibernacula

Hyssopus thymus?
In case of interest, there's a eulophid reported in this paper (wasps within burdock galls).

https://academic.oup.com/aesa/article-abstract/63/4/942/140774/Ecology-of-Metzneria-lappella-Lepidoptera?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Full disclosure ... author is my dad.

 
Thanks very much
for sharing this link, Colin! I'm a bit pressed for time at the moment, but I hope to read the full article soon (took a look at the abstract for now). It's great that your father secured a species-level ID for the eulophid. Ross Hill also suggested genus Hyssopus as a possible ID for my burdock wasps in his comment here:



I'd move this series tentatively to the Hyssopus thymus page on BG...except that that page doesn't exist yet ;)

Moved

Eulophid (female)…
See reference here.

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