The Parasitic Wasp Amblyteles armatorius

[nomad]

Hymenoptera : Amblyteles armatorius

Amblyteles armatorius (Förster,1771) is one of the larger Ichneumonidae, around 15mm in length not counting the long antennae. This attractive species is widespread and fairly common in the UK being found in a variety of habitats with dense undergrowth.

Being a parasitic wasp it does not posses a sting. The yellow and black markings of this Ichneumon are Batesian mimicry to avoid it being eaten by predators. Although this species visits flowers, I first observed one crawling around a woody plant in my garden at the weekend, probably searching for larvae. This wasp like some species of Sawfly are very active even in cloudy weather and are especially difficult to photograph and I had at first no luck. Very keen to find out which species this was, I had search in the adjacent graveyard and found a few crawling around Sycamore scrub growing between the gravestones and was able to get a few images. All June 2016.

[isidro]

Nice. Yours is a male. Here the female:



Wasps of infraorder Parasitica actually have a sting! I've been stung by some ichneumonids (after catching them by hand). But the sting don't hurt too much, it's just like a spine. I believe that those species with long oviscapt (Dolichomitus, Rhyssa, etc) can't sting because oviscapt is the modified sting. But actually, only sawflies lack a sting (although it don't mean that they're always defenceless: some Tenthredo have very strong mandibles!)

[nomad]

Good to see the female Amblyteles armatorius. Looks like she had a much broader abdomen. My images may be of several different males.

[isidro]

My photo is very bad (it was walking over a plastic bag that somebody left in the field, and the white background made the insect very obscure), but the main difference is that the male only have two, broad, yellow bands on the abdomen, and the female have several and more thin yellow bands on the abdomen.

[nomad]

Another species of Parasitic Wasp feeding on an Ox-eye or Moon Daisy, Leucanthemum vulgare. I doubt if you get get a species ID from this image because there are at least 3000 British species. Habitat, Rough grassland in a Victorian Cemetery. June 2016. We often forget it is not just Bees that pollinate but a multitude of different insects. The wasp has a fine dusting of yellow pollen.

[nomad]

Parasitic Wasp in flight. Unknown species. Chalk downland Wiltshire. May 2016.

[isidro]

I can't recognize the one in flight. The previous one, genus is unmistakable (Gasteruption) but usually the ID by photo is completely impossible, you need to see microsculpture of the head and other difficult-to-see characters.

[nomad]

Thank you. I quite agree. To study these species in any detail you would need to take specimens and then send them to a specialist.