Diptera.info

Posted by pxl8 on 19-03-2006 20:51

Hi,

LordV pointed me at this wonderful site for help with ID. I'm hoping someone can finally come up with an ID for the attached?

I saw it in the S.West UK last summer but only the once. It reminds me of an Ichneumon but I've not been able to find any similar photos to confirm an ID.

TIA.

Edited by pxl8 on 19-03-2006 20:52

Posted by Paul Beuk on 20-03-2006 00:39

It strongly resembles Ichneumon sarcitorius (see http://165.229.28...498002.jpg) except for the fact that that one has yellowish markings rather than whitish. I do not know how variable the colour of the markings can be in ichneumonids.

Posted by pxl8 on 20-03-2006 16:12

Thanks Paul. That's the closest match so far, all the other photos I've managed to find also showed yellow markings :(

Perhaps I'll be lucky enough to find other specimen this coming summer and get some more detailed shots that might help get a positive ID.

Posted by Jan Willem on 22-03-2006 11:06

Hi,

I asked Kees Zwakhals (a Dutch specialist in Ichneumonidae) if he could say anything more about this specimen. Kees told me the followig:

The pictures show a male of Ichneumon sarcitorius. After some searching I indeed found some specimens with white markings on the abdomen in the collection of the Zool. Staatssammlung. Like Paul already mentioned, in most cases, the markings are more yellowish. However the rest of the markings are very characteristic; it must be a specimen of Ichneumon sarcitorius.

So I hereby thank Kees for his comments.

Jan Willem