Some sort of Hymenoptera from Tasmania, Aus.
October 31, 2009
On a recent trip to the apple isle (Tasmania) my girlfriend and I snapped this little beauty. I found it crawling around in the sand at the boundary between a beach and dry sclerophyll in Freycinet National park on the east coast. It looks terribly vicious but it didn’t seem to mind being picked up. This was in January which means mid summer in Australia. (although it doesn’t get real hot in Tasmania)
Hope that info is enough to narrow it down.
Thanks guys!
Jish from Newcastle
Freycinet national park, Tasmania, Australia
Wingless Flower Wasp from Tasmania
Hi Jish,
We located some images on the Brisbane Insect Website of wingless female Flower Wasps in the family Tiphiidae, but the patters were nothing like your specimen. We doubted our research, and requested assistance from Eric Eaton. He quickly responded. Seems we overlooked the image when we searched.
Wingless Flower Wasp from Tasmania
Daniel:
It is a wingless female wasp in the family Tiphiidae, possibly genus Catocheilus, as I found on the “Brisbane Insects” website. Neat find, great image!
Eric
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[...] was photographed during the mating ritual at Emerald Beach, New South Wales. In November 2009, we posted a photo from Tasmania that is very similar to your photo and that Eric Eaton identified as a flightless female Flower [...]
This is Catocheilus hyalinatus and is the only species of this genus described or known from Tasmania. It is part of the Catocheilus apterus complex of species.
Thanks so much for the identification.