These small, bizarre wasps are called Carrot Wasps because they often are found feeding on flowers in the carrot family. Here however, they are commonest on our Pearly Everlasting plants. Females have long ovipositors. Carrot Wasps are not very well studied, there are likely unidentified species in North America and only a little is known about their life history. They are mostly parasitoids on solitary bee and wasp species. The long ovipositor allows the female to place the egg on, or near, the bee larvae or egg. In photographing the Carrot Wasps here, we thought there were two species, one with a two red bands and another with a large single red band, however, in examining our photos, there are individuals with one, two or three red bands of various sizes, so perhaps it is one variable species or a whole mix. The genus name for this group is Gasteruption.
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AuthorsTwo biologists on a beautiful property armed with cameras, smart phones and a marginal knowledge of websites took up the challenge of documenting one species a day on that property. Join along! Posts and photographs by Leah Ramsay and David Fraser (unless otherwise stated); started January 1, 2014. Categories
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