Tag Archives: photography

Gallery of parasitic wasps from the redbuds in my front yard

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Now that my eastern redbuds (Cercis canadensis) are pumping out thousands of pods each fall, I thought I’d start photographing the wasps that show up to parasitize the redbud bruchids (Gibbobruchus mimus) developing inside the seeds.

Eupelmus pulchriceps (Eupelmidae)

I’m starting with this species because it’s the only one I’ve photographed that is currently identified beyond genus on iNaturalist. Here’s the female:

And here, possibly, is the male:

I think this a known parasitoid of the redbud bruchid but it took some digging to figure it out. Kingsolver 2004 lists E. cyaniceps as a parasite but Gibson 2001 asserts, “… all literature recording E. cyaniceps from various Bruchidae appear to be misidentifications of E. cushmani.” And per iNaturalists taxonomy page, Eupelmus cushmani is now known as Eupelmus pulchriceps. That said, BugGuide seems to have a listing for Eupelmus cushmanii but not Eupelmus pulchriceps. Additionally, the 2021 “Checklist of Chalcidoidea and Mymarommatoidea (Hymenoptera) of Canada, Alaska and Greenland” (Huber et al. 2021) contains both species, as does the “Bees and wasps of Central America Extended.” I’m a bit confused and thus I likely made a mistake somewhere.

As an aside, the species has recently been found in the Galapagos Islands (Camacho-Erazo et al. 2024, Carmargo-Martinez et al. 2024). Its host range is quite impressive.

Heterospilus sp.

Kingsolver 2004 mentions that both Heterospilus bruchi and H. prosopidis can be found parasitizing redbud bruchids, so my specimens could one of those (or both), but perhaps even something else in the genus. My ID is because the wasp strongly resembles an observation on BugGuide that is identified as Heterospilus sp.

And here’s the male, which I admit assumes they are the same species. I don’t have any photographs of this species arriving at pods still attached to the tree.

Eurotoma sp.

Klingeman and Carrington 2005 list two unidentified Eurytomidae associated with redbud trees that have bruchid infestations, so this was also not an unexpected find.

A male (below) was one of several that emerged from redbud seed pods. As with the other finds, I’m tentatively assuming that the male/female pairs are the same species.

Dinarmus sp. (Pteromalidae)

Per a suggestion on iNaturalist, this might be in the genus Dinarmus. In (weak) support of that, it does appear similar to observations of that genus on BugGuide and iNaturalist. If the genus is correct, it might possibly be Dinarmus basilis, a species that Klingeman and Carrington 2005 found emerging from eastern redbud seeds in Tennessee. There’s an illustration of a female on page 646 of Sureshan and Narendran 2001, however, that doesn’t look like mine in profile, so I’m hesitant. Similarly, figures 2 and 3 of Pimentel et al. 2024 look much bluer than mine. I also think my specimens have too many antennal segments (9?). Dinarmus basilis is apparently introduced in North America and is popular in IPM. The lectotype (a male from Egypt) is in Florence under the basionym of Entedon basalis (Bouček 1974).

More wasps to come?

I’d be very surprised if my current gallery of wasps is complete, so I’m monitoring several thousand seed pods (below photograph) to see who else might emerge in the months to come. There are two wasps that are mentioned in the literature and that I’m hoping to find. The first is Horismenus missouriensis (Eulophidae; bright metallic green with a “longitudinal median groove on the scutellum“; see fig. 1), mentioned by Burke 1971. And Stenocorse bruchivora (Doryctinae; fig 9b, fig 7) is mentioned by Cushman 2011. Neither BugGuide nor iNaturalist has photographs of these species.

I’m especially interested in finding hyperparasites of some of the wasps mentioned above. And on my to-do list in 2026 is to collect several hundred redbud pods in the spring to see whether any of the redbud bruchid eggs harbor parasites such as fairy wasps (Mymaridae).

Redbud seed bruchid

In case you want to see what the beetle looks like, here’s an adult:

Beach finds on Prince Edward Island

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Here are some photographs from a 2024 trip to Prince Edward Island. Plus assorted blurbs because I try to learn something about the species I come across. At the very end are three mystery organisms that have stumped me.

Crustaceans

Atlantic rock crab (Cancer irroratus). It looked sad. Also of minor note: all the tiny little shells in the sand.

Northern acorn barnacles (Semibalanus balanoides) growing on a snail. I wonder how they fare compared to ones that develop on rocks.

Mollusks

As a segue, here are some common periwinkles (Littorina littorea) inside empty barnacle shells. I wonder how often the snails become trapped inside after they add whorls to their shells.

PEI is famous for its Eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) so it was no surprise they were growing everywhere. That said, I was surprised. Trillions of them, I suspect, if you count all the babies (spats). Females are said to produce 100 million eggs when they spawn, which is rather impressive.

Blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) were also present in uncountable numbers. This patch seemed to have very prominent growth rings and I wonder whether the farmed ones are smoother. Could just be my imagination, of course.

Northern horse mussel (Modiolus modiolus). These are very large but the word on the street is that they are not good for eating. The alga is Fucus serratus (saw wrack).

Common Atlantic slippersnails (Crepidula fornicata) on the inside of some shell. Unfortunately there’s nothing for scale so you can’t tell how tiny and adorable these are. Approximately the size of a corn kernel.

Three-lined mudsnail (Ilyanassa trivittata). A scavenger, but apparently has a taste for the egg-case of northern moonsnails (below).

Northern moonsnail (Euspira heros). This is a snail of unusual size (SOUS) and uses a mechanical drill and acid to bore into clams and other snails, including other moonsnails. But they also eat algae, as shown by carbon isotope analysis (source). This video is a short and entertaining primer on how they do it. The resulting hole is always countersunk.

Atlantic jacknife (Ensis leei). Despite persistent effort I could not locate a restaurant on Prince Edward Island that served razor clams. Likely because I went in October. I will need to go back.

Tunicates

Chain (or violet) tunicate (Botrylloides violaceus). This invasive is loathed by oyster and mussels farmers on the island because it fouls cages, ropes, boats, etc., all of which need to be blasted clean with high-pressure hoses. And if you don’t, the combined weight of the tunicate is enough to break the mussels’ attachments to the rope that suspends them in the water. They also compete for food. And it gets worse because this is just one of four invasive tunicates in the area. But they are pretty!

Plants

Gutweed (Ulva intestinalis). I didn’t take a close-up but I read that the fronds have hollow parts that trap oxygen and allow it to float when the tide comes back in. Although it’s very green, the reddish rock and combover reminded me of somebody. That’s why I took this photo.

Mermaid’s tresses (Chorda filum) attached to a rock. Fronds can get as long as a school bus. It’s a brown alga.

Furcellaria lumbricalis. This is a red alga and the only member of the genus. Apparently loaded with carrageenan. But apparently not as easy to harvest as giant Irish moss (an asexual, hexaploid variant of Chondrus crispus), a red alga that used to be harvested with horses on Prince Edward Island before the population crashed (invasive green crabs and potatoes are on shortlist of culprits). Even the Irish Moss Interpretative Centre has closed.

Sea wrack (Fucus serratus). Apparently quite tasty, and it’s an invasive so you should.

Dead man’s fingers (Codium fragile), another invasive. Often called oyster thief because it attaches to farmed bivalves, which then get washed away by strong waves. Per one source it causes millions of (CAD) dollars of losses every year.

New York aster (Symphyotrichum novi-belgii). This wasn’t in the intertidal but it was close enough so I wanted to include. I’m a sucker for compact plants that are just barely hanging on.

Insects

Black kelp fly (Coelopa frigida). There were millions of these but it still took probably 100 tries before I could get a decent image. Small, frenetic, and easily spooked. And only 126 observations on iNaturalist for North America, as a likely result. I would like to go back with my real camera and flash setup. Larvae are said to eat the bacteria that grow on decomposing seaweed.

Telmatogeton japonicus. These were even harder than kelp flies to photograph, and that’s my excuse for it being out of focus. And for the sake of full disclosure I’m not positive about the identification. If confirmed, my iNaturalist observation would be the first for Prince Edward Island.

Peryphus sp. This is a subgenus of Bembidion, my father’s favorite carabid. As he often complained, they are really fast and hard to capture. And hard to identify which is probably why my dad liked them.

Black vine weevil (Otiorhynchus sulcatus). This is an invasive agricultural pest and I was surprised to see it on the beach. But it turns out that it has a rather wide host range so I guess not unusual.

For such a beautiful and large wasp I thought somebody on iNaturalist would offer up an identification. After almost a year, nothing. I’m guessing that it was going after some sort of cavity-nesting bee that uses beetle bore holes in driftwood as nests. All the logs had plugs like this so some bee is really utilizing the wood.

Spiders

Thin-legged wolf spider (Pardosa sp.) that was under a rock. I’d wager that it was mainly eating kelp flies. Species identification is only possible with dissection.

Trochosa sp. that has recently molted. This also can’t be taken to species level because the patterns aren’t visible until after the new exoskeleton ages a bit.

Mysteries

I’m assuming this is some sort of venting product made by a sand-dwelling organism such as a clam, worm, or crab. Here’s the iNaturalist observation if you’d like to weigh in.

This sort of looks like a sponge (e.g., Clionaidae, Halichondriidae) but I truly have no idea. Definitely creepy, and I wonder whether those barnacles were victims of something slow moving. Here’s my iNaturalist observation if you can help.

I think this might be some sort of fungus (e.g., Collemopsidium halodytes) or a lichen. It was especially common in depressions in rocks where water might pool. More ideas are on my iNaturalist observation. I would be grateful for suggestions.

As always, if you see a mistake please let me know.

In case you’re a camera nerd, all photographs were taken with an OM TG-7 that I purchased for the trip. It’s waterproof, shoots RAW, does focus-stacking (poorly), and weighs a lot less than the Canon DSLR that I usually lug around with me.