Name the family of this critter. The winner will receive a printable electronic copy of this.
Still no cure for APOBPS.
Birding in Karoo National Park
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During our time of living in Pretoria in South Africa, we occasionally made
trips to Cape Town and the surrounding regions. As none of us enjoyed
overly lo...
4 hours ago
22 comments:
Sphecidae? Those are the thread-waisted wasps here in the US. Cool critter!!!
Formicidae?
Ant :)
Part of it looks like a piece of mineral while the rest looks like that of a fire ant. Anyway it's definitely an insect. =D
No answer from me but it looks cute, though it must be as dangerous as an red ant.
Hem..., what about Evaniidae or Ensign Wasps?
Mosquito ? Because of the snort thingy...
Mae West?
C'mon... look at those eyelashes and the waist and the ... ummm, don't you agree?
Hi Patrick,
Very good try! The answer is Eucharitidae. It belongs to the Superfamily: Chalcidoidea. The genus has been narrowed down to Chalcura sp.
Hi Dee,
The larvae of Eucaritidae is parasitic upon mature larvae of ants (Formicidae). Both Formicidae and Eucharitidae fall under the Order: Hymenoptera. Good try!
Hi K,
Like Dee above, you have got the Order right. So, well done!
Hi Harumi,
Yes, it is an insect, very good!
Yes its irridiscence is striking.
Hi Rainfield,
Looks could be deceiveing. It didn’t cause any trouble to me.
Hi Tabib,
Again, a good attempt. Evaniidae falls under the Superfamily: Evanioidea. As mentioned above this belongs to the Superfamily: Chalcidoidea.
Hi MTC,
Well, Mosquito and this shares the same Class: Insecta. But it is not a mosquito. Thanks for trying.
Hi Sunita,
Hahaha....Had I announced a prize for the funniest answer you would have definitely won it!
I did not know who Mae West was and I had to google it. I now know what you meant, Sunita! She’s been a bit of a girl in her hey days, hasn’t she?
I am eagerly looking forward to the India-Pakistan clash today. Hope Yuvi's absence will not cost too much for India. Also hope you will stay up to watch the match with the boys, until the end.
Dear All,
To know more about this interesting family of Wasps, visit http://www.faculty.ucr.edu/~heraty/Eucharitidae.html
This critter was barely 4mm in length. Click on the image to view it on flickr to see it more clearly.
I am currently trying to narrow this down to species level. I have got better pictures of it since taking this shot, taken at a little over twice the life size.
that wasp is incredible - and wonderful photography!
Dale
http://alpinebirds.blogspot.com
I have a hard enough time trying to I.D. my dragons, let alone wasps! It is a fantastic shot, Amila!
Amila, look up her quotes too. That lady had some of the funniest one-liners ever!
No, this wife and mother of 2 of India's greatest supporters will NOT be watching. If you read my reply to your comment in my blog, you'll find out why ;D
Eucharitidae?
Oh geez, so I suppose I was way off thinking the critter's name might be Jones.
I was going to say it looks like an ant.
I'll now back away and leave very quietly.
(sound of crickets chirping)
Fantastic shot!
Hi Dale,
Thanks! They suddenly materialised in my garden after some very rainy weather.
Hi Kim,
Thank you! I am begining to get hooked on wasps now....Oh dear!
Hi again, Sunita,
Yes, I noticed those quotes.
What a boring tournament of cricket it has turned out to be now!
Hi Jochen,
Haha...good one! I can imagine where that comes from!!
Hi Stu,
I have turned a big Eoin Morgan fan. What a player!
Hi OC,
Thank you. Good to hear from you, as always.
Amila, your mention of cricket and the men in the family prompted me to write my latest post. Take a look. Its over at my Chai 'n Spice blog though.
http://chai-n-spice.blogspot.com
Hi again, Sunita,
That was a really good one! You should do a book.
Hi Ocean,
Thanks as always! Very nice to hear from you.
Wonderful picture!!!!! How did you take it? do you have a special digital camera?. I'm biologist and my specialization is the family Eucharitidae from Argentina and I would like to take pictures like this. Cheers, Javier.
Thanks a lot, jtorrens!
Good to hear from you.
This was found in my home garden, so I had plenty of time to take lots of shots to show off "keepers" like this one.
As for my rig, I used a Canon 40D body to shoot this. It was fitted with Canon MP-E 65mm Macro Lens, which takes life size (x1) to five times the life size (x5) images. For illuminating the scene, I used a Canon Macro Twin Lite MT-24EX Flash. If I remember right, this shot was taken at a higher size than life size. I did not use a tripod, because I don't use tripods. I have discontinued using my 40D, as I have upgraded my body to Canon EOS 1D Mark IV. (I am yet to to take this using my new toy.)
I crouched and rested my elbows on my thighs to minimize camera shake. At times, when I cannot rest my elbows (to make a elbowpod!), I would just rely on my steady hands and fire a lot of shots, hoping that at least one emerges sharp by luck.
Having a leafy background in this case helped me to get a lovely green background. The macro flash light reflected of such backgrounds adds a sweet touch to critters like this, as it helps to make the subject "pop out" nicely.
BTW, since I have done this post, I have narrowed down the ID to Chalcura deprivata (Walker, 1860), which is endemic to Sri Lanka.
I hope this answer helps.
Thank's Amila! and Congrat again, you take a spectacular pictures. The genus Chalcura is not in Argentina but we have a genus Pseudochalcura that is pretty close in morphology with Chalcura. Cheers
Thanks again. Nice to know about your Pseudochalcura. Sounds like we have the real deal here!
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