Tiphiidae 3 (female)

Meaning of name:

Unknown.

Distribution:

Unknown.

Description:

This female wasp is approximately 15 millimetres long.

Notes:

The wingless female tiphiid wasp releases pheromones that signal to the winged male that she is ready to mate. The male picks up the female and takes her to nearby flowers. They mate while she is feeding.

After mating, the wingless female tiphiid wasp searches the ground for a beetle larva. Once found, she paralyses the beetle larva and lays an egg on it. After hatching, the young wasp eats the beetle larva.

These photographs were taken in April.

References:

Identification courtesy of David Knowles.

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiphiidae

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