I is for ichneumon

14 Thursday Dec 2023

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Amblyjoppa fuscipennis, British ichneumons, British wasps, Ichneumon sarcitorius, Ichneumon wasps, wasp

I’m not very good at photographing and/or identifying bee and wasp species (they’re almost never still, and they can be tricky to identify) so I was very happy to nail not one, but two wasp species in August. Both were ichneumon wasps, the first, which featured in An ichneumon, 10 August, is Amblyjoppa fuscipennis.

231214 Amblyjoppa fuscipennis

And this second beauty was also distinctive enough for me successfully to identify. Meet Ichneumon sarcitorius (from Another ichneumon, 11 August).

231214 Ichneumon sarcitorius

An ichneumon

10 Thursday Aug 2023

Posted by sconzani in insects

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Tags

Amblyjoppa fuscipennis, British wasps, ichneumon, Ichneumon wasps

I found two ichneumon wasps on neighbouring umbellifers at Cosmeston last week. Their identities haven’t yet been confirmed but I think I’ve got them right, and I’ll explain why in today’s post and tomorrow’s. Firstly, though, I must acknowledge my source for this – the Natural History Museum has an excellent downloadable pdf, Beginner’s guide to identifying British ichneumonids, which I always find very helpful when trying to identify these lovely wasps.

230810 Amblyjoppa fuscipennis fem (1)

Firstly, I believe this is a female Amblyjoppa fuscipennis, which the guide describes as follows:

A large (16–25mm) and beautiful species with a black head. It has a black thorax with a small cream spot and a bright orange abdomen – quite broad and no other colours on it. Can be confused with Protichneumon pisorius, but where P. pisorius has black tips on the hind tibia and tarsus, these features on A. fuscipennis are entirely orange. Flies from June to August.

230810 Amblyjoppa fuscipennis fem (2)