Flickr photo series estimates ceraphronid oviposition behavior
I came across an awesome series of photos by renown photographer Brian Valentine that show an Aphanogmus wasp (Hymenoptera: Ceraphronidae) approaching a potential host (maybe a cecidomyiid larva?), antennating it (mmmmmm...smells good!), and then ovipositing before walking away. Here's one of the images:
István Mikó and I have slowly built up a complete reference list for the superfamily Ceraphronoidea, and the most descriptive statements about Aphanogmus oviposition behavior (in fact, the only statements about Aphanogmus oviposition behavior) we can find are from Jaramillo and Vega (2009):
During the dissection of berries we observed that Aphanogmus sp. spends most of its time inside the coffee berries within the coffee berry borer galleries. Before parasitising P. nasuta [a bethylid wasp, which parasitizes the coffee berry boror], [Aphanogmus] probes with its antennae the older host larvae or pupae just before construction of the cocoons... [Aphanogmus] usually oviposits on the abdomen of P. nasuta, and up to three Aphanogmus sp. larvae or pupae were found inside the...cocoons.
Aphanogmus has been reared from several orders of insect host, and Jaramillo and Vega (2009) describe a species that parasitizes Bethylidae. I made an animated GIF from the Flickr images so that I could estimate the behaviors for the species captured by Velentine, but alas he was way ahead of me and stitched one together himself! Check it out: Aphanogmus oviposition behavior.
What other treasures will emerge from Flickr's parade of naturalists...? Thanks for sharing your wonderful photos!
