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Photo#1354717
Delighted to encounter Ripiphorus rex again! - Ripiphorus rex - female

Delighted to encounter Ripiphorus rex again! - Ripiphorus rex - Female
In Canyon 41, en route to Inner Pasture, Anza-Borrego State Park, San Diego County, California, USA
March 28, 2017
Here she's in a typical position assumed while I was observing: with head and body oriented downward and her sharply tapered ovipositor bent nearly 90° forward...positioned above the flowers.

From this position she would bob up-and-down, actively jabbing her ovipositor into the flower heads to insert eggs.

With the eggs within the flower head, upon hatching, the tiny and unusually active 1st instar larvae ("triungulins") will wait for a visiting female bee to visit, then attempt to board the bee and ride back to her nesting burrow. Once there, a triungulin, and later its more sedentary subsequent instars, will feed on the bee larvae and provisions. (Alternatively, the triungulins might first board a visiting male, then try to transfer to a female bee during mating.)

Images of this individual: tag all
Delighted to encounter Ripiphorus rex again! - Ripiphorus rex - female Delighted to encounter Ripiphorus rex again! - Ripiphorus rex - female Delighted to encounter Ripiphorus rex again! - Ripiphorus rex - female Delighted to encounter Ripiphorus rex again! - Ripiphorus rex - female