White Flank Black Braconid wasp - Callibracon capitator

Family BRACONIDAE

This page contains pictures and information about White Flank Black Braconid Wasps that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.


Female, body length 15mm

The wasp has the orange head, black thorax and black abdomen with white patterns on flank. The abdomen is banded with white. Its wings are tinted in black colour. We found this wasp the first time in Alexandra Hill on July 2007. The larvae of this wasp is known to parasite on Longicorn Beetle larvae.



The wasp was always found inspecting large tree trunk using its antenna.



The wasp has the shining body covered with soft pale hair. The ovipositor is long, about the same length of it body.


Male



Then we found that this wasp is quite common in Eucalypt forest in Brisbane.



Please check the Braconid Wasps main page for more general information on this wasp.

Reference:
1. A field guide to insects in Australia - By Paul Zborowski and Ross Storey, Reed New Holland, 1996, p184.
2. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, pp 948.
3. Wasps - family Braconidae - lifeunseen.com, by Nick Monaghan.
4. Callibracon limbatus - Digital Insect of Taiwan Agriculture Research Institute, Taiwan Agriculture Research Institute.
5. The hymenopterous parasitoids of eucalypt longicorn beetles, Phoracantha spp. (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in Australia - A. D. Austin, D. L. J. Quicke and P. M. Marsh (1994). . Bulletin of Entomological Research,84, pp 145-174.