Case Moth Larvae Parasite Wasp
Size 20mm without ovipostor. Large wasp found trapped in our sunroom. It is a beautiful wasp with an ovipostor almost the size of its body. Its shiny abdomen is banded white/blueish on black. Its head is small and looks dark/black. There was the usual 'beard' around its mouth. Antennae are long black and relatively robust, show a yellow base. Lateral eyes are ovale/liver shaped with three ocelli behind. The long hind legs match the black and white abdomen at the back, has a yellow joint at the front that matches the thorax. Front legs are a bright yellow into white. Claws seem to be dark. Wings cover the whole abdomen have a clear and simple venation and are transparent with the exception of a dark marking about one third from the back. The photographed specimen shows some reddish-brown colouration at the top of the thorax which I thought might be a fungal/parasital infection or some red pollen, but which could also be normal pigmentation. ALA has only Australian records around the 'science' appropriating metropolitan states of the South despite the fact that this species seems a common find in Brisbane (see http://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_ichneumonwasps/CaseMothParasite.htm accessed 28/10/2017). I might change its English name but follow brisbaneinsects for now.
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