Two-toned Caterpillar Parasite Wasp
Found this species a while ago. Longer session 27/9/2016 based on which I moved some similar species into different galleries in order to separate them. Large wasp, body about 16mm, including tail and antennae maybe 25mm. It posed for the camera very patiently and hardly moved, was hard to reach though and hidden in between foliage. I found a 99% match on ALA on the species Heropelma scaposum, which I have occupied for a similar wasp. I am hestitant to merge those two quite different looking and behaving animals. The body of this individuum was black. It looked like it was wearing yellow goggles. Its slender abdomen is horn coloured. Ovipostor long and black. Hind leg pair long and brown with yellow patch lower down. Front two leg pairs are orange-yellow. Wings only cover front abdomen, overlap when resting. Antennae fine and extremely long. A different looking species in this gallery has moved to a newly created gallery Yellow-black Ichneumonid Wasp. Update 28/9/2016: I read somewhere that a common trait of this species is its short ovipostor. In that case and despite an amazing similarity, the ID could be wrong. Would be interesting to know.
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