odd parasitoid - Synopeas hopkinsi

Moved

Dr. Lubomir Masner informs me that this is Synopeas hopkinsi (Crawford & Bradley). He says the presumed host is the young larvae of a species of Xylodiplosis living under oak bark.

Per Terry Nuhn, the species is represented in the Smithsonian collection, and there is a series from Gainesville, Florida that was collected on freshly cut oak.

Moved from ID Request.

… Bob Carlson, 11 August, 2010 - 12:58pm

Correction

Dr. Raymond Gagné has informed me that Xylodiplosis is thought not to live under bark but rather on exposed xylem vessels of the wood of freshly cut or freshly broken trees. I felt inclined to speculate that the lack of nutrients in xylem would suggest a fungal association, but evidently there is no fungal association, and, as far as is known, the Xylodiplosis subsist on xylem.

… Bob Carlson, 16 August, 2010 - 9:25am

Platygastrid…

Not much question that it is a female platygastrid. Just a matter of taking it further now.

… Ross Hill, 10 August, 2010 - 6:22pm

Wow!

And in my back yard, no less. If I had ever encountered an illustration of this critter, I can't recall it. I'll ask around.

In the meantime, I see that Synopeas species can have that sort of metasoma. In the 1979 Catalog of Hymenoptera in America north of Mexico 30 species of Synopeas were listed. Quite a few have type localities in or in the vicinity of Washington, DC.

… Bob Carlson, 10 August, 2010 - 4:38pm

Terry Nuhn of SEL's Hymenoptera Unit informs me that this species is not represented in the Smithsonian collection. He further informs me that there are genera other than Synopeas in which species can have the elongate metasoma (abdomen, sans propodeum). Two of them are Platygaster and Prosactogaster. Synopeas is distinguished by a spine on the scutellum and a hairy propodeum. It don't see any hairs on the lateral part of the propodeum that is visible in this photograph, and the profile of the scutellar tip is concealed by the wings.

… Bob Carlson, 11 August, 2010 - 11:14am

cool

I'll take a closer look at the specimen and post photos when I get a chance!

… Kojun Kanda, 11 August, 2010 - 11:38am

One of these, I guess.

… Victor Engel, 10 August, 2010 - 1:35pm

Not Ichneumonoidea

Note the simple venation and fewer than 15 flagellomeres, I think it is a platygastrid

… Miles Zhang, 10 August, 2010 - 3:20pm