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Lord Vetinari
Registered Users Posts: 15,900 Major grins
Spotted what I thought was a rather stupid small Ichneumon wasp walking about just underneath the orbweb of an Araniella sp. spider. Took a couple of low power shots and then just as I was changing the magnification on the lens, there was a flurry of activity which I only managed to capture one half decent shot of, before the wasp flew off and the spider did an emergency bail out and ended up several inches below the web on an emergency thread.
I initially thought ok the spider missed the wasp but looking at #2 the wasp actually looks like it's in an egg laying postion and there is a "tube" near the spider. I suspect in fact the wasp may be one of the polysphinctus sp. wasps that actually lay an egg externally on araniella sp spiders. Last shot is an old shot of one of these spiders caryying the external parasite larva.
Brian V.
I initially thought ok the spider missed the wasp but looking at #2 the wasp actually looks like it's in an egg laying postion and there is a "tube" near the spider. I suspect in fact the wasp may be one of the polysphinctus sp. wasps that actually lay an egg externally on araniella sp spiders. Last shot is an old shot of one of these spiders caryying the external parasite larva.
Brian V.
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Thanks for the comments- there are some weird and horrible behaviours in the bug world.
Brian V.
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Great job adapting to the changing situation and getting in there.
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Turns out it was simply a braconid wasp being stupid. Apparently they will use their ovipositor if attacked.
Brian V.
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