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Photo#153130
Braconid Wasp - Atanycolus - female

Braconid Wasp - Atanycolus - Female
Lacey (near Olympia), Thurston County, Washington, USA
October 20, 2007
Found this fellow sheltering under a blackberry leaf to avoid the rain, however, my entomological ignorance is once again showing. Can't find any halteres and the head reminds me a *lot* more of hymenoptera. Went and checked the horntails in the guide here, but couldn't find anything close. Ichneumonid of some sort?? The third pic I'm including isn't a great pic overall, but it shows the cute little "whiskers" on the bottom of the head well.

Images of this individual: tag all
Braconid Wasp - Atanycolus - female Braconid Wasp - Atanycolus - female Braconid Wasp - Atanycolus - female

Moved
Moved from Agathidinae.

Braconinae: Atanycolus sp.
This is not an agathidine or helconine. Braconinae is the correct subfamily. If you look closely at the wasp's profile in the second photo, you can see a concavity in the face, denoting a "cyclostome" braconid. Also, braconines have poison glands that makes the lateral sides of the metasoma bulge. This bulging is barely visible in the profile image also, but is very visible in this photo: http://bugguide.net/node/view/146122/bgimage.

Braconid Wasp (female)
A brightly colored species of the subfamily Helconinae.

 
well heck
Rats. I went looking for Helconinae in the guide to do some comparison shopping...it isn't there! :(

However, thanks for the ID, Richard. First braconid in my "backyard bio" collection.

 
My mistake
Correct name used in BG is Agathidinae, not Helconinae.

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