The end of a saga

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Thu Jun 07, 2018 12:42 am

A story that started in 2008 with a shot of a mating bundle of chalcid wasps and ended this year with a shot of the wasp ovipositing into an aquilegia seed pod.

Brian V.

Mating bundle of chalcid wasps on aquilegia flower taken in 2008

2010

Small flies mating on aquilegia taken in 2007

Small fly ovipositing on aquilegia 2014. I also had a shot of the chalcid wasps which a flickr expert told me were host and parasitoid. The fly is Phytomyza krygeri and the chalcid wasp Seladerma simplex

At last this year a shot of the chalcid wasp ovipositing into the developing seed pod of aquilegia.

ChrisR · Post by **ChrisR** » Thu Jun 07, 2018 10:31 am

Cool sequence!

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Thu Jun 07, 2018 10:28 pm

ChrisR wrote:Cool sequence!

Thanks Chris. It was great to find out what the wasps were doing on the flower

Brian V.

Rudi · Post by **Rudi** » Sun Jun 10, 2018 5:44 am

Now, thats a long story Brian....Your patience has been rewarded. Very difficult to capture these little buggers, they never seem to stop... !!
All great shots, with the last one being my favourite....

Troels · Post by **Troels** » Sun Jun 10, 2018 12:02 pm

Interesting.
Thanks for posting.

JH · Post by JH » Sun Jun 10, 2018 2:40 pm

I really enjoyed this series of pictures.
/Jörgen

razashaikh · Post by **razashaikh** » Sun Jun 10, 2018 10:00 pm

Amazing!

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Sun Jun 10, 2018 10:15 pm

Rudi wrote:Now, thats a long story Brian....Your patience has been rewarded. Very difficult to capture these little buggers, they never seem to stop... !!
All great shots, with the last one being my favourite....

Troels wrote:Interesting.
Thanks for posting.

JH wrote:I really enjoyed this series of pictures.
/Jörgen

razashaikh wrote:Amazing!

Thanks all for the comments - glad you enjoyed the story.
Brian V.

ldflan · Post by **ldflan** » Wed Jun 13, 2018 4:43 pm

Very nice. But I am confused. Does the seladerma create a gall on ovipositing on the plant? Or is it a parasitoid of the fly? What's the life cycle?

LordV · Post by **LordV** » Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:36 pm

ldflan wrote:Very nice. But I am confused. Does the seladerma create a gall on ovipositing on the plant? Or is it a parasitoid of the fly? What's the life cycle?

The fly lays it's egg in the flower, the fly larva starts eating the developing seeds in the seed pod then the chalcid wasp Seladerma lays it's egg into the fly larva or pupa which is then consumed by the wasp larva.

Brian V.

ldflan · Post by **ldflan** » Thu Jun 14, 2018 6:53 am

Delightful. Hymenoptera. Always doing something bizarre. That's a great series of pics, then. I'm nine months into a diplolepis rosae project. Some decent footage of ovipositing behaviors; tracking a 2mm wasp filming in macro mode is tough.