Fascinating!
5th August 2010, ThursdayLooking at one of the brackish pits on Harbour Farm today I came across this fascinating tableau. Below and to the right is a female Flecked General (Stratiomys singularior), laying a mass of bright green eggs. To the left and above is an older, but still unhatched batch of Flecked General eggs, and perching on this like some fat-thighed gargoyle is the parasitic wasp Chalcis sispes. This is a parasitoid of Flecked General larvae, the wasp eggs being laid in either young larvae or well developed eggs. In order to get a ready supply of victims, the female wasp often protects an eggs mass from other females of the same species, fighting back to back with the muscular hind-legs.
Chalcis sispes showing enlarged hind femora. These are used in confrontations with other females over Flecked General egg-masses.
Female C. sispes fighting over a Flecked General egg-mass