{"id":3116,"date":"2021-02-10T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T22:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/?p=3116"},"modified":"2021-02-10T09:00:38","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T22:00:38","slug":"tree-trunk-terrors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/2021\/02\/10\/tree-trunk-terrors\/","title":{"rendered":"Tree Trunk Terrors."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the point of view of other insects that is, in reference to the fascinating variety of wasps found checking out the tree trunks for larvae provender. Some are spectacular in appearance, others less so but just as interesting when their life history is checked out. Interestingly, some species seem to favour specific tree species, possibly because their intended prey items are more prevalent there. Specimens of the first Ichneumonid pictured, a Gotra species, were all photographed frequenting the trunks of two garden Yellow Gums, Eucalyptus leucoxylon. Similarly, the white-flanked Braconid, Callibracon capitator also favoured these smooth-barked trees, these are known to parasitise longicorn beetles.<\/p>\n<p>Gotra species.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/gotra1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/gotra1b.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"492\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/gotra2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/gotra2b.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"334\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Callibracon capitator.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/calli.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/callib.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"821\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>And the prey, a longicorn beetle.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/long.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/longb.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"475\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This tiny but very striking Ichneumonid came to the moth light at night. It is in the subfamily Cremastinae, they parasitise Lepidoptera and Coleoptera.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/crem.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/cremb.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"542\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wasps such as these can be quite wary and the photographer has to move slowly and carefully in order to avoid putting them to flight. This orange Ichneumonid was an exception to the rule, it was completely unconcerned and continued to check out every crevice and loose bark sheet no matter how close the camera approached.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/orange1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/orange1b.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"650\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/orange2.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"991\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This wasp is a spider hunter in the family Pompilidae, genus Fabriogenia.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/wasp02.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wasps\/wasp02b.jpg\" width=\"700\" height=\"732\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Most images will enlarge.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the point of view of other insects that is, in reference to the fascinating variety of wasps found checking out the tree trunks for larvae provender. Some are spectacular in appearance, others less so but just as interesting when their life history is checked out. Interestingly, some species seem to favour specific tree species, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/2021\/02\/10\/tree-trunk-terrors\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Tree Trunk Terrors.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-nature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3116\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bencruachan.org\/naturality\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}