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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies (Hymenoptera) » "Parasitica" - Parasitoid Wasps » Braconid and Ichneumonid Wasps (Ichneumonoidea) » Ichneumonid Wasps (Ichneumonidae) » Labeninae » Labena » Labena grallator

Species Labena grallator

Classification · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Size · Identification · Range · Food · Remarks · Works Cited

Ichneumon wasp - Labena grallator - female

Giant Ichneumon - Labena grallator - female

Wasp ID Request - Labena grallator - male

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Hymenoptera (Ants, Bees, Wasps and Sawflies)

No Taxon ("Parasitica" - Parasitoid Wasps)

Superfamily Ichneumonoidea (Braconid and Ichneumonid Wasps)

Family Ichneumonidae (Ichneumonid Wasps)

Subfamily Labeninae

Genus Labena

Species grallator (Labena grallator)

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Cryptus grallator Say, 1836

Labena grallator (Say)

Size

"Species quite variable in size (forewing length 7.3 to 18 mm)" -- Bob Carlson

Identification

Apical ~0.3 of antennae blackish, wings often conspicuously darkened. Color variable: eastern specimens primarily red, western specimens always conspicuously yellow-marked.(1)

Female (left) and male (right)

Range

Mostly eastern USA, but extending into Arizona, southern California, and Mexico(2)

Food

"Has been reared from insects infesting Pinus and Taxodium, but is more often reared from borers in various angiosperms (trees, bushes, and vines)."(2)

Remarks

Highly variable in terms of yellow markings. Townes described these as five separate subspecies, but Carlson found that the extent of geographic variation is not conducive to the recognition of subspecies.(2) A few of these forms have images on the guide:

widespread eastern US, formerly L. g. grallator: abdomen from T3 to apex largely reddish

Arizona, formerly L. g. ochreata: abdomen from T2 to apex largely yellow, propodeum and hind coxae yellow

Texas, Big Bend country near Presidio, formerly L. g. balteata: abdomen with distinct banding, wings with the apex conspicuously darker

-no photo-

New Mexico and Colorado, formerly L. g. xutha: hind coxa and T1 yellow, metapleuron and propodeum yellow with black margins, abdomen from T3 to apex yellow-marked

-no photo-

southern California, formerly L. g. lutea: metapleuron, propodeum, hind coxa, and T1 yellow, abdomen from T3 to apex yellow-marked

Works Cited

1.	A revision of the genus Grotea (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) Slobodchikoff, C. N. 1970. Pan-Pacific Entomologist 46: 50-63.

2.	Carlson R.W. () Ichneumonidae catalog

Contributed by Eric R. Eaton on 5 October, 2008 - 1:06am
Additional contributions by Bbarnd, Vox Sciurorum, PaleoJon
Last updated 25 June, 2023 - 8:50pm

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