Thread subject: Diptera.info :: Bethylidae wasp?
Posted by jorgemotalmeida on 26-08-2007 00:34
#1
Hi
* locality - Silgueiros - Viseu - PORTUGAL
* date - 2007.08.25
* size - 7 mm (medium wasp)
* habitat - open land
* substrate - on Mentha sp. flower
This is a male of Bethylidae wasp. Correct?
Edited by jorgemotalmeida on 26-08-2007 00:36
Posted by jorgemotalmeida on 26-08-2007 00:40
#2
another view...
Posted by Andrew Whittington on 15-09-2007 10:05
#3
Yes, it looks like a Bethylid to me .. but isn't it a female. Both males and females can be winged in some species and in the second photo the specimen seems to have a stinger?
Edited by Andrew Whittington on 15-09-2007 10:06
Posted by jorgemotalmeida on 15-09-2007 13:46
#4
yes. it is a stinger.
According to the delta intkey: "Head. Antennal segments (11?)12 (females), or 13 (males). Antennae geniculate"
this drive us to the female wasp... It has clearly LESS THAN 13 segments... so a winged female...
Why nobody has sure about Bethylidae for this wasp? It is clear that this CANNOT BE an ant. ;)
What are the other wasps that are very similar to the Bethylidae wasp? :)
Posted by Christian Schmid-Egger on 15-09-2007 20:18
#5
I am not sure, weather it is a Bethylidae (12-13 antennal segments) or a Dryniidae (10 antennal segments), because I count 11 segments. It also may be a small Tiphia species. But I am not so familar with these groups to recognize it. In any case it is not an ant, because ants always have a knot-like petiolus.
Regards, Christian
Posted by jorgemotalmeida on 05-11-2007 01:33
#6
Christian Schmid-Egger wrote:
In any case it is not an ant, because ants always have a knot-like petiolus.
Regards, Christian
not always! :) there are exceptions. The only thing that we can find in ants is the existence of metapleural gland (there is no *VIRTUALLY* any other animal with that gland) BUT not all ants have it. :)
Posted by Christian Schmid-Egger on 06-11-2007 20:53
#7
not always! :) there are exceptions. The only thing that we can find in ants is the existence of metapleural gland (there is no *VIRTUALLY* any other animal with that gland) BUT not all ants have it. :)
But these exeptions are really rare??? Even in the world key for Hymenoptera (Goulet & Huber 1993), Formicidae are charaterized as: "Metasoma petiolate, ..segment I usually strongly constricted at each end, forming a true node, but rarely unconstricted posterodorsally (only!!!)", what for me means a half node minimum".
In every case, the above mentioned wasp is never an ant, but a Bethylid or something similar; or an Tiphia (I cannot recognize wing venation).
Regards, Christian