Orange Pupa Parasite Wasp - Akymichneumon sp.
Family ICHNEUMONIDAE
This page contains pictures and information about Orange Pupa Parasite Wasps that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Body length 15mm
- 2003 in a sunny winter afternoon, when we were walking passing someone's front yard, we saw a Ichneumon Wasp flying pass us and stop on a leaf. She seemed searching something's using her antenna tapping on the leaf. A few seconds later, she found something. We saw there was a small hole on the leaf, not sure the hole was already there or made by the wasp.
- The wasp started to punching her long ovipositor into the hole. We knew that she was laying eggs into the host, but not sure what it was at that time. The wasp punched her ovipositor into the hole with different direction.
- She did this for about a minute. Then she fly to another leaf and start searching again. She searched for minutes and seemed find nothing. Then she flied away. We knew there must be something under the leaf and we turn over it to have a look. We saw a dark brown pupa cover with silk. It looked like a moth pupa.
- Please check the Ichneumon Wasps page for more general information above this wasp.
- Reference:
- 1. Insects of Australia, CSIRO, Division of Entomology, Melbourne University Press, 2nd Edition 1991, p 944, Fig42.19D.
- 2. An introduction to the Ichneumonidae of Australia - Gauld, I.D. 1984, British Museum, p211.
