Greetings, BugFans,<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s the week between Christmas and New Year\u2019s, and the TV stations that aren\u2019t showing sports and reruns are airing Hallmark Holiday movies.\u00a0Here\u2019s a rerun from 2012\u2014old words, new pictures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here\u2019s the \u201ctake-home\u201d\u2014when you meet a critter with a name like\u00a0Gasteruption<\/em>, you just have to stop what you\u2019re doing and embrace the\u00a0Gasteruption<\/em>\u00a0experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n First, the name.\u00a0Gasteruption<\/em>\u00a0is a genus in the family Gasteruptiidae (of course), the Carrot Wasp family\u2013 so-called because the adults are usually found eating nectar and pollen on flowers in the carrot family (including Wild Parsnip).\u00a0\u201cGaster<\/em>\u201d is an anatomical term referring to the wider\/inflated, distal segments of a wasp\u2019s abdomen, the puffy part behind the \u201cpetiole\u201d or pinched-in \u201cwaist\u201d of the wasp. The BugLady is only guessing about the \u201cuption<\/em>\u201d part. Here, the root word for the second syllable of \u201cinter<\/em>ruption\u201d is \u201crumpere<\/em>\u201d from the Latin for \u201cto break.\u201d Is that a reference to the arched gaster set high up on the wasp\u2019s thorax? Maybe yes, maybe no.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Second, the experience.\u00a0The BugLady was moseying around in her favorite wetland the other day, checking the flower tops, looking for bugs to photograph. Oh, some Water Parsnip and Joe Pye Weed did hold some insects (mainly bumblebees and ambush bugs), but two particular clumps of Water Parsnip, six feet away from each other, absolutely hummed with Hymenopterans like cuckoo wasps, sweat bees, yellow jackets, and ants\u2014and Carrot Wasps (though their voices must be pretty soft).\u00a0The BugLady decided to try for more pictures the next day, and in a 1\u00bc mile hike through likely habitat at two different sites, found them only when she returned to those original plants.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n These are seriously small insects\u2014not super short, but oh-so-thin. Each of the little bunches of flowers on the Water Parsnip\u2019s umbel is smaller than a 25-cent piece; the Carrot Wasps look like mini sewing needles approaching the plant. They often fly in and land on the side of the umbel and then climb up and over, onto its top.\u00a0Their posture in flight reminds the BugLady of someone who has just gone off a ski jump.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The long, arched abdomen is similar to that of an Ichneumon wasp, but a Carrot Wasp also has a noticeable neck, and the tibias on its back legs are enlarged.\u00a0There are 15 species in the genus in North America, five of those in the east, and they look pretty much alike\u2014mostly black with varying orange bands on the gaster.\u00a0While the females of some species have ovipositors that are as long as their body, three of our species have a short ovipositor and one of those is southern. This Carrot Wasp is (probably) either\u00a0Gasteruption kirbii<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0G. assectator<\/em>\u00a0(which also occurs in Europe).\u00a0These are not stingers and they are harmless,\u00a0and the end of the male’s abdomen is not pointy.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Carrot Wasps range over the US and into Canada.\u00a0Look for them on flower tops in grasslands and gardens (and wetlands, it seems) throughout late spring and summer.\u00a0They can also be found casing out the brood cells of solitary wasps and bees that nest in wood. (Remember, most bees and wasps are solitary, not social.)\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Adult Carrot Wasps may be vegetarians, but their young are not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When she finds a bee\/wasp nest, a female Carrot Wasp checks it with her antennae, \u201cfeeling\u201d for the activity of a wasp\/bee larva within its cell. Satisfied, she inserts her ovipositor into the cell and lays an egg. BugFans can find a YouTube video of a female\u00a0Gasteruption<\/em>\u00a0wasp trying to puncture the sealant that one kind of plasterer bee spreads over her nest\u2019s opening.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n Her egg is placed, depending on the Carrot Wasp species, near or on the host\u2019s egg, or on the supply of food provided by the bee for its offspring, or on the wall of the cell.\u00a0The wasp larva is an\u00a0inquiline<\/em>\u00a0in the nest\u2014a boarder\u2014and a predatory guest at that.\u00a0Some Carrot Wasp larvae eat the food cache that was meant for the original inhabitant; some eat\/parasitize the wasp\/bee larva, and some do both.\u00a0They\u2019ve been recorded in the nests of digger bees, plasterer bees, leaf-cutter bees, mud daubers, and pollen wasps.\u00a0Carrot Wasps overwinter as larvae and pupate in spring; not a lot is known about their pupation, but the pupal stage is probably passed within the bee\/wasp nest.\u00a0Carrot Wasps would have potential as biological control agents except that they also parasitize native pollinators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gasteruption<\/em>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wishing you a wonderful New Year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The BugLady<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Greetings, BugFans, It\u2019s the week between Christmas and New Year\u2019s, and the TV stations that aren\u2019t showing sports and reruns are airing Hallmark Holiday movies.\u00a0Here\u2019s a rerun from 2012\u2014old words, new pictures. Here\u2019s the \u201ctake-home\u201d\u2014when you meet a critter with …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19040,"featured_media":16770,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bug-of-the-week"],"yoast_head":"\n