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Photo#1539385
Ichneumoninae - female

Ichneumoninae - Female
Somerville, Morgan County, Alabama, USA
March 25, 2018
This is not the best photo (it wouldn't sit still) but I'd be more than happy if anyone can confidently get this down to genus. I've chewed on the possibility of it being something in Cratichneumon, and then I see Spilichneumon and I'm back to square one. Ichneumonids are simply outside of my area of expertise, so I'm hoping one of our specialists might be able to help ID to at least genus level (and kindly offer identification pointers for this specimen). Thanks in advance.

Moved
Moved from Ichneumoninae.

Hey Jason, just wanted to thr
Hey Jason, just wanted to throw my 2 cents in. In the future if you could get an image showing a lateral or latero-ventral view of the female hypopygium (final metasomal segment) then a confident ID to at least genus could be made. By the habitus this is most likely Ichneumon but could also potentially be Spilichneumon, Eutanyacra, or Diphyus. In the latter genera the hypopygium will be enlarged and almost entirely cover the ovipositor while in Ichneumon it will be short with the majority of the ovipositor exposed.

 
Thank you
Very interesting info, I appreciate it. Since posting this photo, I had labeled this one as "Spilichneumon sp" in my personal photo filing system, partially due to the amblypygous appearance of the metasoma. Even though it's a dorsal photo, the blunt appearance with still a small point of the ovipositor showing, along with the overall appearance, had me lean that way. (For instance, in Eutanyacra I wouldn't expect to see much, if any, of the ovipositor at that angle/position)

Does that seem correct, or should Spilichneumon have more/less ovipositor visible?

I wish I would have netted this one for some better photos. This one may be just stuck at this taxonomic level.

Thanks again for the insights.

 
I tend to lean towards Ichneu
I tend to lean towards Ichneumon but it could go either way. If it is amblypygous then it's most likely Diphys or less likely Eutanyacra due to the long first couple flagellomeres. Since ichneumonines have short ovipositors anyways, it's very hard to tell if a female is oxy or amblypygous without a detailed lateral shot. With a dorsal view in most cases you can't be confident there usually isn't much difference between oxy and amblypygy. So unless we could use coloration (unfortunately there are a ton of red Ichneumonini females like this, though not too many with an annulus) I would conservatively put this under Ichneumonini.

 
Okay
I see, and I definitely appreciate the info. Seems this is quite the complex group to sort with these cursory photos in the field. At least I know what to try and photo next time. Thanks again Brandon!

 
Forgot to add: Spilichneumon
Forgot to add: Spilichneumon females have very stout antennae which in which the first few flagellomeres are about as wide as they are long which doesn't look to be the case here.

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