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DemonJD
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Joined: 09 Nov 2008
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Location: England
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 Post subject: Big wasp looking thing |
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I've just returned from Tenerife and while I was there I saw some big (about 2 inches or so) black or dark coloured wasp/dragon fly type things, they only had 2 wings and the tail of the things were joined to the body by a very thin tube. The tail was bulbous and ended in a point like a stinger, it had a nest that was made of paper stuff that it had built on my balcony and inside were some caterpillars - is this a parasitic wasp of some kind?
Any info would be gratefully received.
John. |
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Sun Nov 09, 2008 10:11 am
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rob
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Joined: 08 Aug 2004
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Location: Tenerife
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Did you get any photos of it?
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Sun Nov 09, 2008 3:07 pm
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DemonJD
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Location: England
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| No photos, I never had a camera ready when one appeared, inside it's nest there were two kinds of caterpillar and none were moving which suggests to me they were there as food for it's larvae |
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Sun Nov 09, 2008 5:51 pm
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bardofely
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Joined: 22 Dec 2004
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Location: Playa San Marcos, Tenerife
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Yes, they are very common here and are the main predator of Monarch butterfly caterpillars. The mother wasp feeds them to her grubs. I have read that this species of wasp, which is common in many other countries, can be a serious threat to butterflies and moths and I can well believe it. The wasps will take nearly all caterpillars they can find on a plant. I have seen them take all the Monarch caterpillars on a flower border here so it is a wonder any survive!
The species is the European Paper Wasp (Polistes gallicus) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polistes_gallicus
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Sun Nov 09, 2008 10:03 pm
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andyfowles
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Location: Woking, Home of McLaren F1 Racing. Driven by the winner of the F1 drivers championship 2008.
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Thanks for that Bard, I knew you'd know the answer and post it as soon as you came online.
Great link to the wikipedia again as well, with a great picture; maybe DemonJD will be able to confirm if this was the insect he saw?
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Sun Nov 09, 2008 10:30 pm
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bardofely
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Joined: 22 Dec 2004
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Location: Playa San Marcos, Tenerife
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| andyfowles wrote: | Thanks for that Bard, I knew you'd know the answer and post it as soon as you came online.
Great link to the wikipedia again as well, with a great picture; maybe DemonJD will be able to confirm if this was the insect he saw? |
Thanks, Andy, and I would ad that they are an excellent biological control in normal conditions - in other words if there is a good supply of foodplants for caterpillars even with the wasps' heavy predation enough survive to pupate and become adults whilst not endangering the plant they need. What happens here is that Monarchs are faced with such an extreme shortage of Milkweed they lay their egs all over any they find resulting in far too many caterpillars that devout all the plants they are on and can then die as well if there are no more nearby. If the wasps find such a population they make a note of the site and take all the caterpillars there, meaning that the Milkweed and wasps survive but the already in short supply Monarchs become even lower in numbers.
If the wasps have no more Monarch caterpillars to eat they move on to other species or other food sources. The Monarch is unable to eat any other type of plant besides Milkweed so it has less of a chance than the wasp.
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Mon Nov 10, 2008 9:51 am
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DemonJD
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Joined: 09 Nov 2008
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Location: England
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| This isn't the thing I saw, the one on my balcony was black or very dark coloured with no stripes and the tail was much fatter, also the thin part that connected the tail to the front part of the body was fairly long, about half an inch. |
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Wed Nov 12, 2008 7:18 pm
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bardofely
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Location: Playa San Marcos, Tenerife
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Wed Nov 12, 2008 7:53 pm
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