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Photo#67365
Eggs? on poplar leaf - Pediobius

Eggs? on poplar leaf - Pediobius
Barrie, Simcoe, Ontario, Canada
July 29, 2006
Size: 2mm
I checked on these things last night in the wee small hours, and found two of the eggs?pupae? with a hole in the thorax area, empty, and two of the most exquisite little insects I have ever seen running around in circles on top of the rest. These little guys look like some sort of wasp - about 2 mm long, the head and thorax a bright metallic plum colour, and the abdomen a metallic green.

I put the leaf under the microscope and watched as several more emerged. One of the first two wandered off across my drafting table and subsequently succumbed to something on its surface, but the other kept circling the remaining eggs. It would stop at the ones trying to chew their way out, looking down into the hole, antennae pointing straight down at the head of the emerging insect, totally motionless except for a slight quiver of the antennae and an occasional rapid brushing of its hind legs across its abdomen. At first it would only stop for 5 or 10 seconds before resuming circling, but as the hole became larger it would stay longer and longer. It took the emerging insect two hours to chew its way out, toward the end of that time the circling one stayed motionless for up to 5 minutes at a time.

As soon as the emerging insect managed to get its head through the hole, the one who had been waiting and watching grabbed it and dragged it out of the egg and away from the group of eggs, where it appeared to try to mate with it. The new one was definitely larger, so I'm thinking the first was a male, and the second a female?

Unfortunately, though I have a decent microscope, I have no way of taking photos with it, so these pictures don't do the little creatures justice. I'm thinking some sort of parasitic wasp - but do they come that small?

I do have two specimens I can check under the microscope for any details that might help with an ID - the two that wandered onto my work surface became disoriented, started loosing their coordination, and died in a matter of 15 minutes or so - probably traces of paint and spray fixatives that didn't agree with the little dudes.

Images of this individual: tag all
Eggs? on poplar leaf - Eulophus Eggs? on poplar leaf - Eulophus Eggs? on poplar leaf - Eulophus Eggs? on poplar leaf - Pediobius Eggs? on poplar leaf - Pediobius - male - female

Moved
Moved from Eulophus.

Thanks for catching that!

Entedoninae
Pupae are those of Eulophus, but the emerged wasps are Entedoninae. They look like Pediobius sp., some species are known to be hyperparasitoid with Eulophus as hosts.

Moved
Moved from Eulophidae.

Moved
Moved from Chalcid Wasps.

Moved

So interesting!
This is exciting. I am glad that you recorded your observations. The large dark things look to me like shriveled Hymenoptera cocoons. The little wasps may very well be parasitic ones.
The behavior you describe sounds similar to that of some of the fig wasps. The males help the females out of the cocoons and mate with them. All that happens inside the fig, by the way. You can find a few links in: the Agaonidae guide page.
If you can don’t miss the video. You will see what I am talking about.

I'm so glad you got some hatchlings for us to see!
Wasps definitely come that small (and smaller - see this one), but I'll leave it to the experts to find an ID.

I'm moving this whole series to Hynmenoptera so they don't get buried in ID Request.

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