The end of a saga

Images of undisturbed subjects in their natural environment. All subject types.

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LordV
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Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 10:28 am
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The end of a saga

Post by LordV »

A story that started in 2008 with a shot of a mating bundle of chalcid wasps and ended this year with a shot of the wasp ovipositing into an aquilegia seed pod.

Brian V.


Mating bundle of chalcid wasps on aquilegia flower taken in 2008
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2010
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Small flies mating on aquilegia taken in 2007
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Small fly ovipositing on aquilegia 2014. I also had a shot of the chalcid wasps which a flickr expert told me were host and parasitoid. The fly is Phytomyza krygeri and the chalcid wasp Seladerma simplex
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At last this year a shot of the chalcid wasp ovipositing into the developing seed pod of aquilegia.
Image
www.flickr.com/photos/lordv
canon20D,350D,40D,5Dmk2, sigma 105mm EX, Tamron 90mm, canon MPE-65

ChrisR
Site Admin
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Post by ChrisR »

Cool sequence! =D>
Chris R

LordV
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Post by LordV »

ChrisR wrote:Cool sequence! =D>
Thanks Chris. It was great to find out what the wasps were doing on the flower

Brian V.
www.flickr.com/photos/lordv
canon20D,350D,40D,5Dmk2, sigma 105mm EX, Tamron 90mm, canon MPE-65

Rudi
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Location: Temse, Belgium

Post by Rudi »

Now, thats a long story Brian....Your patience has been rewarded. Very difficult to capture these little buggers, they never seem to stop... !!
All great shots, with the last one being my favourite....
Always looking at the bright side of life,
Kr, Rudi

Troels
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Post by Troels »

Interesting.
Thanks for posting.
Troels Holm, biologist (retired), environmentalist, amateur photographer.
Visit my Flickr albums

JH
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Post by JH »

I really enjoyed this series of pictures.
/Jörgen
Jörgen Hellberg, my webbsite www.hellberg.photo

razashaikh
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Location: India

Post by razashaikh »

Amazing!

LordV
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Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 10:28 am
Location: UK

Post by LordV »

Rudi wrote:Now, thats a long story Brian....Your patience has been rewarded. Very difficult to capture these little buggers, they never seem to stop... !!
All great shots, with the last one being my favourite....
Troels wrote:Interesting.
Thanks for posting.
JH wrote:I really enjoyed this series of pictures.
/Jörgen
razashaikh wrote:Amazing!
Thanks all for the comments - glad you enjoyed the story.
Brian V.
www.flickr.com/photos/lordv
canon20D,350D,40D,5Dmk2, sigma 105mm EX, Tamron 90mm, canon MPE-65

ldflan
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Location: Issaquah, WA

Post by ldflan »

Very nice. But I am confused. Does the seladerma create a gall on ovipositing on the plant? Or is it a parasitoid of the fly? What's the life cycle?

LordV
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Joined: Thu Nov 22, 2007 10:28 am
Location: UK

Post by LordV »

ldflan wrote:Very nice. But I am confused. Does the seladerma create a gall on ovipositing on the plant? Or is it a parasitoid of the fly? What's the life cycle?
The fly lays it's egg in the flower, the fly larva starts eating the developing seeds in the seed pod then the chalcid wasp Seladerma lays it's egg into the fly larva or pupa which is then consumed by the wasp larva.

Brian V.
www.flickr.com/photos/lordv
canon20D,350D,40D,5Dmk2, sigma 105mm EX, Tamron 90mm, canon MPE-65

ldflan
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Location: Issaquah, WA

Post by ldflan »

Delightful. Hymenoptera. Always doing something bizarre. That's a great series of pics, then. I'm nine months into a diplolepis rosae project. Some decent footage of ovipositing behaviors; tracking a 2mm wasp filming in macro mode is tough.

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