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Willow Wood-Wasp Xiphydria prolongata
e6filmuser
Registered Users Posts: 3,378 Major grins
I was photographing an empty, metallic-looking ladybird pupa on a Hazel leaf. To overcome the effect of the breeze on the leaf, I detached it and placed it on a sheltered log. It was a willow log, propped up at about 45 degrees against a head-high Pussy Willow stump. With all that Willow involved, what happened next was a lucky chance of being in the right ecological place at the right time.
As I framed the pupa, I became aware of some dark, elongated shape wriggling up the middle of the sloping log. It was not at all an insect gait but I looked down to see this long wasp. Fortunately for me, it came to a stop for a minute or two.
I had my Printing Nikkor 105mm on the camera, at 1:1 at the sensor, with a field 17mm wide. The wasp was so long that, although possibly achievable, I could not quite get it framed, complete with both its antennae diagonally. My Kiron 105mm would have been ideal but it was at least two minutes away. I have two pictures with it, a female, crammed in the frame. The bulk, on my left side, of the huge tree stump, together with the long tube extension, made getting a head-on shot impossible.
The species is distinguished from others, in the UK, by the size and shape of the white marks (yellow in a larger species) on the back of the head and by the "reddish" region of the abdomen.
This wasp used to be in the genus Tenthredo. Species of Xiphydria, as larvae, feed on the decaying wood of common European species (Willow, Oak, etc.) of deciduous trees. They have been found to carry spores of a single species of fungus in their gut.
Several species carry Dalinia species of fungus, with common names such as Dead Man's Fingers, Cramp Balls or King Alfred's Cakes. The fungus found in this species Entonaema cinnabarina is not one I can trace as ocuring in the UK. (I am making enquiries of specialists).
Harold
As I framed the pupa, I became aware of some dark, elongated shape wriggling up the middle of the sloping log. It was not at all an insect gait but I looked down to see this long wasp. Fortunately for me, it came to a stop for a minute or two.
I had my Printing Nikkor 105mm on the camera, at 1:1 at the sensor, with a field 17mm wide. The wasp was so long that, although possibly achievable, I could not quite get it framed, complete with both its antennae diagonally. My Kiron 105mm would have been ideal but it was at least two minutes away. I have two pictures with it, a female, crammed in the frame. The bulk, on my left side, of the huge tree stump, together with the long tube extension, made getting a head-on shot impossible.
The species is distinguished from others, in the UK, by the size and shape of the white marks (yellow in a larger species) on the back of the head and by the "reddish" region of the abdomen.
This wasp used to be in the genus Tenthredo. Species of Xiphydria, as larvae, feed on the decaying wood of common European species (Willow, Oak, etc.) of deciduous trees. They have been found to carry spores of a single species of fungus in their gut.
Several species carry Dalinia species of fungus, with common names such as Dead Man's Fingers, Cramp Balls or King Alfred's Cakes. The fungus found in this species Entonaema cinnabarina is not one I can trace as ocuring in the UK. (I am making enquiries of specialists).
Harold
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