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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) » Braconid Wasps (Braconidae) » Cenocoeliinae » Capitonius or Cenocoelius
Photo#979181
wasp with red head - male
Copyright © 2014 hg

wasp with red head - Male
Clifton, Passaic County, New Jersey, USA
July 24, 2014
very small very cute wasp with red head. ovipositing on dead and slightly moldy fig branch. there were at least 3 different types of tiny wasps ovipositing on this spot. it had rained and everything was wet-ish. wasps oviposited here for a couple of days. i've never seen them before nor have i seen them since.

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wasp with red head - male wasp with red head - male
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Contributed by hg on 16 August, 2014 - 10:21pm
Last updated 20 August, 2014 - 5:29am

Moved
Moved from Braconid Wasps.
These wasps go after the grubs of wood-boring beetles such as long-horned beetles, metallic wood-boring beetles, bark beetles, and some snout beetles. This explains why this specimen is so interested in the tree it's on. The females have long ovipositors for sticking into the wood, to reach her host beneath and lay an egg. This one is a male (no long ovipositor) - maybe senses the presence of a young adult female in the process of digging her way out.
… Joe, 19 August, 2014 - 12:42am login or register to post comments

 
thanks
its abdomen was in an odd angle and I thought I saw an ovipositor but now I realize it's the femur of the other hind leg! I did notice several holes along with this and the other two kinds of wasps this week on same fig tree. I was wondering who made them when some saw dust actually fell on me from several new holes being dug, tried to pry one out but couldn't. Will try to get a photo of the borers tomorrow. This beetle was found on the same tree so they might be its grubs? Good to know they're all somehow connected.
… hg, 19 August, 2014 - 4:25am login or register to post comments

 
It's a longhorn alright.
The longhorn beetle may be the adult stage of the beetle larvae (grubs) that the cenocoelines were going after, but it can't really be established unless the parasitoid is reared from the host. It's possible that more than one kind of longhorn or other wood boring beetle is using the fig tree as a nursery. The other parasitoid wasp is a chalcidoid of some sort, possibly a eurytomid.
… Joe, 19 August, 2014 - 10:40am login or register to post comments

Moved
Moved from ID Request.
… v belov, 16 August, 2014 - 10:50pm login or register to post comments

Braconid wasp…
See reference here.
… Ross Hill, 16 August, 2014 - 10:39pm login or register to post comments

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