New Additions!

It appears the caterpillar trail is closed due to the recent storms, but it should be open again soon. I sneaked onto the trail to get some food for the catas, so they seem happier now. I saw some catas out there while I was collecting food, so I guess they survived the torrents of rain. While I was up in Pomona for my interview at Western U, Kit's sister Taylore gave us a lot of insects - mainly Coleoptera (beetles) and Orthoptera (grasshoppers, katydids, and crickets). One of them may be a family I do not yet have, and I will include cool pictures eventually!

In the meantime, here is another insect from my collection:

Hymenoptera; Apocrita; Ichneumonoidea; Ichneumonidae; Ichneumoninae

Wasps of the family Ichneumonidae, which are known for being parasitic and may have exceptionally long ovipositors for depositing their eggs deep in bark crevices. I like this one particularly for its pretty metallic blue color. It was caught at Elkhorn Slough.  Thank you (anonymous) for checking my identifications - I'm still relatively new at this!

Ichneumonidae

This is a large wasp of family Ichneumonidae. They are very noticeable because most of them have very long ovipositors extending from the abdomen. When I caught this Ichneumonid, the abdomen was a very bright red, but after pinning the abdomen became a duller red color.

Hymenoptera; Apocrita (parasitic); Ichneumonoidea; Ichneumonidae;

These wasps are parasites of other insects, specifically their larvae. When the wasp locates the grub, sometimes several inches inside a tree or the ground, the wasp inserts its ovipositor and lays an egg in the grub. The insect's body, not including the ovipositor, tends to be fairly large and thin, at least an inch long. Ovipositors can extend beyond the length of the insect's body, as in this example.