# Ichneumon wasp



## rip18 (May 19, 2012)

I went out for a bit this morning to grab a couple of shots of flowers & ended up poaching in Lee Woodie's territory (but without the super-close up capability he has...  ).

I found what seems to be a male ichneumon wasp (Cryptus albitarsis) who was pretty cooperative for a bit before he decided he was warm enough to fly away...

Nikon D300s, Dine 105 mm, f/22, 1/30th second, ISO 640, tripod, on-board flash at full power, slight crop.


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## wvdawg (May 19, 2012)

Nice capture Rip!


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## Lee Woodie (May 19, 2012)

Great shot Rip I'm glad you said what it was cause my first thought was a Parasitic Wood Wasp with that red rump.


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## Crickett (May 19, 2012)

Cool!


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## Joker (May 19, 2012)

Very nice shot Rip.


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## quinn (May 19, 2012)

Great shot rip!


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## rip18 (May 20, 2012)

Thanks, y'all.



Lee Woodie said:


> ...I'm glad you said what it was cause my first thought was a Parasitic Wood Wasp with that red rump.



That would have been a good thought (and still might be correct!), but the Parasitic Wood Wasp has a thick, red tip on a black abdomen.  This guy had an all red abdomen with a sharp, stinging point...  

It was interesting to watch this guy as he heated up for the day's flying.  When I'd get too close to him or move to quickly, his abdomen would start pulsating - big, little, big, little, big, little - like he was warning me off (which I'm sure he was...).  I had to wait for him to stop a couple of times because the pulsation was so fast it would have caused some blur at the slower shutter speeds that I was using at times with him...


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## Hoss (May 20, 2012)

Cool find and a neat capture.

Hoss


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