Another laptop visitor, this time, a parasitoid wasp, perhaps of the kind that parasitises the hundreds of ladybugs out and about at the moment. Likely in the Eucoilinae family.

Update: not a parasitoid wasp but an oak gall wasp, tribe Cynipini. Thanks to Luis Nastasi for the identification at the tribe level.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/341199805

#iNaturalist #Hymenoptera #wasplove #entomology #wasps

Subfamily Eucoilinae

Eucoilinae from Pembroke College, Cambridge, Anglaterra, GB on March 3, 2026 at 01:57 PM by Albert Cardona. On the rim of my laptop. Reminds me of a lady beetle parasitoid wasp, Dinocampus coccinellae

iNaturalist
Social Wasps - Alex Wild

Although a large majority of wasp species are solitary carnivores and parasites, the minority that lives socially in family groups are the ones most people think of as "wasps". This gallery highlights a few truly social species from around the world.

I haven’t posted here for a while so here is an invasive and #AsianHornet (Vespa velutina) that recorded in France this summer. This one was in the Pays de la Loire.

Yellow leg tips, dark head+thorax, thin yellow band on abdomen, yellow/orange 4th segment on abdomen.

#hornets
#WaspLove
#wasps

"While some buy the nests, others harvest them straight from the source: outside and often very high in tree canopies. There’s only a short window of time to retrieve the nests responsibly. One must wait long enough after the first few frosts to ensure that a nest is empty, but act soon enough so that its paper-thin construction is not damaged by wind, rain or hungry birds."

#art

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/24/realestate/luxury-wasp-nest.html?unlocked_article_code=1.wE8.Z4wY._xcYAzGEU75W&smid=nytcore-android-share

#waspnest
#wasplove
#wasps

Why Is There a Wasp Nest In the Living Room?

These variegated, collaged-looking nests — fetching up to $250 each — are a recent fixation in interior design.

The New York Times

Quite pleased with this shot of an Urosigalphus braconid wasp I got in central Austin today. I suspect the wasps are emerging from live oak acorns, having parasitized the grubs acorn weevils.

Not many live photos exist of this genus, it seems.

#Urosigalphus #Braconidae #WaspLove #Insects

Malcolm Storey created and maintains https://www.bioimages.org.uk , a huge catalogue of high-resolution images of most animals that can be found in the British Isles, except for birds and other vertebrates.

Offers one of the most comprehensive catalogue of #Ichneumonidae images with special emphasis on macro photography to illustrate species-diagnostic features.

Malcolm has been identifying thousands of parasitoid wasps at #iNaturalist – that's how I found out. Thanks so much for all your work.
https://www.inaturalist.org/people/3839145

#wasplove #wasps #entomology #insects #UK

BioImages - Virtual Fieldguide (UK)

Tiny wasp walking on a spider's silky thread. Because why not? Not sticky at all.
Pteromalidae family.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/313864634
#iNaturalist #Hymenoptera #wasplove #entomology
Family Pteromalidae

Pteromalidae in September 2025 by Albert Cardona. Walking on a silk thread forward and backwards.

iNaturalist

A nest of Syneoca cyanea warrior wasps in Paraná, Brazil. Two things I love. Wasps. And Brazil.

#Wasps #Synoeca #WaspLove #Hymenotera #Insects

Finally, on the trail, a fearsome, very large wasp, a Delta unguiculatum, busy stabbing and carrying a pillbug – presumably to stash away as food for its young.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/309811924

11/n
#iNaturalist #Hymenoptera #wasplove #entomology

Delta unguiculatum

Delta unguiculatum from Otok Hvar, Jelsa, Split-Dalmatia, HR on August 28, 2025 at 05:27 PM by Albert Cardona. Holding what looks like a pillbug under its front limbs.

iNaturalist

And a rare one: a velvet ant, male, genus Dasylabris, also grooming – thankfully, otherwise, I'd never be able to snap photos of these most gorgeous wasps.

Males are harmless; their mission in life is to find a female, which are wingless, pick it up and mate in a nuptial flight, and gently carry it to an auspicious location where it will find many a prey to catch and stash away, paralized, to feed their young in an underground burrow.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/309786828

7/n
#iNaturalist #Hymenoptera #wasplove #entomology

Genus Dasylabris

Dasylabris from Otok Hvar, Jelsa, Split-Dalmatia, HR on August 28, 2025 at 05:02 PM by Albert Cardona. Male, winged

iNaturalist