Tootfinder

Here's a photograph (not mine) of a Polistes diminula colony living inside an ornamental butterfly house. It's from Baker and Potter's excellent article titled, "Invasive paper wasp turns urban pollinator gardens into ecological traps for monarch butterfly larvae." #monarchs #butterflies #wasps https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66621-6

Looking for insects inside inflorescences of yarrow (Achillea millefolium). Turns out there's a fly or a wasp inside almost every single fruit. #wasps #flies #microscope #yarrow #insects

Newly-ecolosed male chalcid wasp (Eurytoma sp.) using its forelegs to remove the pupal sheath from one of its antennae. The long setae on each flagellomere will fluff up to give the antennae a bottle-brush look. From eastern redbud seeds. #wasp #chalcidoidea #hymenoptera #eurytoma #insects #nature #entomology #macro

Small (~1.25mm) wasp that I've been finding in large numbers on yarrow growing in my yard. I'll probably never be sure, but my guess is that it's Aprostocetus anodaphus (Eulophidae), an endoparasite of Ozirhincus millefolii (Cecidomyiidae), which I've found on the same inflorescences in equally large numbers. As far as I know it has never been reported in North America. Please go out and check for them if you have yarrow and a macro lens. #wasps #hymenoptera #yarrow #achillea #flies #parasite #nature #insects #macrophotography