Three Little Wasps

Here's a trio of neat little wasps:

Netelia sp, IBSP, Lake County, IL 11/1/14

This one's Netelia sp., in the family Ichneumonidae.

Gasteruption sp, Grant Woods FP,
Lake County, IL 7/9/14

This one's Gasteruption sp., in the family Gasteruptiidae.

Proctotrupes sp, IBSP, Lake County, IL 10/24/14

And this is Proctotrupes sp., in the family Proctotrupidae.

If you noticed that none of them are ID'd to species, well, that's what I get for looking at such unassuming little critters. They're very hard to identify beyond genus, usually requiring dissection at some point. This difficulty isn't, though, from a lack of effort on researcher's parts. If you search for papers on these three genera, you'll find plenty of taxonomic and descriptive work. What you won't find much of is theoretical work.

A couple of articles of some interest beyond the taxonomic one include Gokhman & Ãîõìàí's work on chromosomal evolution. (1) What they found, to my eyes, is that while it is possible to trace the evolution of karyotypes in this order (Hymenoptera, that is), evolution at this level is probably too fast for working out higher-level taxonomies. (The second name above is my computer's desperate attempt to render Cyrillic -- try searching for Gokhman on Google Scholar if you want to see it properly.)

Another, by Broad & Quicke, looked at echolocation in parasitoid wasps -- which all three of our critters here are. Apparently by tapping on old logs, tree trunks, etc., the wasps can find caterpillars, beetle grubs, and the like hanging out in the wood, and even estimate how deep they are (2) -- another example of a simply physical problem being solved repeatedly in different lineages.

(1) Gokhman, V. E., & Ãîõìàí, Â. Å. (2011). Morphotypes of chromosome sets and pathways of karyotype evolution of parasitic Hymenoptera Ìîðôîëîãè÷ åñêèå òèïû õðîìîñîìíûõ íàáîðîâ è íàïðàâëåíèÿ ýâîëþöèè êàðèîòèïà ïàðàçèòè÷ åñêèõ ïåðåïîí÷ àòîêðûëûõ (Hymenoptera).

 

(2) Broad, G. R., & Quicke, D. L. (2000). The adaptive significance of host location by vibrational sounding in parasitoid wasps. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 267(1460), 2403-2409.