Prajwal J Ullal
08-08-2021, 09:04 PM
ID: Chalcidoid wasp
Named after its copper-ish body colour, this tiny beauty, hardly 3-4mm across, was seen busy laying its eggs into some unknown egg clusters, identification of those egg clusters would be helpful, which were laid underneath the leaf. Though it seemed not so obvious due to the tiny size, almost feeling like any tiny leafhopper feeding on the leaf’s liquid, on close observation, post framing it, I could see the ovipositor dug inside the soft tissue of the egg cluster and continued to do so for a long time, enough to frame the same in close distance. Interesting to see this behaviour, where these infamous wasps tend to lay its eggs inside other insects’ eggs, which in turn feast on the source eggs, eventually killing them off.
EXIF:
Canon 80D
Canon 100mm macro
F/11
Shutterspeed 1/250
ISO 400
Handheld, External flash fired
Location: Thane
Named after its copper-ish body colour, this tiny beauty, hardly 3-4mm across, was seen busy laying its eggs into some unknown egg clusters, identification of those egg clusters would be helpful, which were laid underneath the leaf. Though it seemed not so obvious due to the tiny size, almost feeling like any tiny leafhopper feeding on the leaf’s liquid, on close observation, post framing it, I could see the ovipositor dug inside the soft tissue of the egg cluster and continued to do so for a long time, enough to frame the same in close distance. Interesting to see this behaviour, where these infamous wasps tend to lay its eggs inside other insects’ eggs, which in turn feast on the source eggs, eventually killing them off.
EXIF:
Canon 80D
Canon 100mm macro
F/11
Shutterspeed 1/250
ISO 400
Handheld, External flash fired
Location: Thane