Monday: 4 May 2009
Thousands of Species, Notoriously Difficult, Forget It! [General] -
Wayne - wayne@sparkleberrysprings.com @ 07:30:07
I was entertained a few days ago by this presumptive ichneumon wasp canvassing the front porch and the potted plants around it. She’s looking for a friend that she’d like to make better acquainted with her future children.
| "Thousands of species and notoriously difficult to identify from photographs," is the way bugguide puts them, which means you probably have to get into counting the hairs on the tarsi and dissecting for genital shapes. And if you look at the above link, you’ll see that there are thousands of photographs of ichneumons that remain unidentified. Nonetheless I did find several groups of ichneumon photos that resemble this one closely, two in Texas here and here, and one in Arizona. |  |
 | The Arizona link above had a notation that “I think this might be a mimic, the model being a spider wasp, Priocnessus apache. When I was looking at the thumbnails I was hoping that’s what it was (they are colored and patterned almost identically)...” (Nick Fensler). |
| Checking out Priocnessus apache there is a certain resemblance but I’d already pretty much concluded the resemblance to spider wasp hunting behavior just from watching. This one was nervously twitching her wings and antennae as she scurried about looking for trouble. I’ll bet she doesn’t actually hunt spiders (although there are some ichneumons that do), but perhaps is intimidating to them by her behavior and appearance. |  |
