Tootfinder

was gonna go out on bike. started to dot with rain though. got this snap before i went back indoors.
watermelons don't seem to have loads of black pips nowadays. they just have a few yellow ones instead. they don't taste good neither. wasps still like them though.
#wasps

Macro pics coming soon. I love tiny wasps. #wasps #eulophidae #hymenoptera

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

I'm chilling some sprigs of yarrow (Achillea millefolium) to slow down some tiny wasps I'd like to photograph. I'd wager there were 2-3 individuals on each inflorescence, and seemingly all the same kind. The flowers were too dry to offer any kind of nectar reward so I'm assuming the wasps are there to parasitize something developing inside yarrow fruits. #wasps #yarrow #insects #achillea

When I have small insects that move too quickly for photographs, I like to dump them onto a white platform that sits on ice, to slow them down a bit. If you zoom and squint you can some wasps that I discovered loitering on my yarrow plants. I'm still editing the close-ups but will share soon. A eulophid, I think. #macro #macrophotography #photography #wasps #insects #wasps

In case anyone needs to know, if you jostle an inflorescence of yarrow over a piece of white paper, very small (1 mm) wasps fall out. Most tend to hop around instead of flying away. Extremely hard to photograph, disappearing and reappearing like miniature Nightcrawlers from the X-Men universe. Am going to chill some plants to slow them down, so stay tuned if you're interested. You're interested, right?? #wasps #yarrow #achillea #insects #hymenoptera

PSA: Wood boxes with slits that are marketed as "butterfly houses" are purely decorative. Multiple studies have confirmed that butterflies never use them. But paper wasps (Polistes) do, which is not great for butterfly populations because these wasps hunt caterpillars. Plus they sting, so not great for humans walking by. #butterflies #scam #insects #nature #garden #lepidoptera #wasps

Last fall I stuffed several hundred eastern redbud seeds into pharmaceutical gel caps, then waited for parasitic wasps to emerge so that I could take photographs. #blog #wasps #insects #parasites #nature #redbud #beetles #hymenoptera #macro #macrophotography #entomology https://colinpurrington.com/2026/06/wasps-emerging-from-eastern-redbud-seeds/

Here's a different male showing off his unfurled antennal setae, chemically tuned to pick up pheromones from females. #wasps #eurytoma #chalcidoidea #antennae

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

Egg of a redbud seed weevil (Gibbobruchus mimus) glued to the edge of a seedpod. I've been taking photographs just in case it's possible to see when they are parasitized by fairy wasps (Mymaridae). Likely futile. #bruchidae #beetle #insect #coleoptera #nature #macro #redbud #wasps #macrophotography

Patiently waiting for insects to show up at my puddling station. #bees #wasps #mud #clay #soil #water #insects

FINALLY, something new has popped out of the eastern redbud seeds that I've been monitoring for months. It's metallic green and small enough to be a hyperparasitoid, I think. Will share better pic after I can get some sort of rough ID from BugGuide. #wasps #hymenoptera #parasitoid #redbud #entomology #nature #insects

Tiny pteromalid, possibly Dinarmus basilis, that emerged from my collection of eastern redbud seeds. The species is a known parasitoid of the bruchid that eats these seeds. #wasps #dinarmus #insects #chalcidoidea #redbud #bruchidae #beetles #entomology #nature #biology

Allantus viennensis (Tenthredinidae) foraging for nectar on a peony flower bud. This is one of several sawfly species that spends its larval days defoliating my roses. They also eat Rubus so I'll be watching my blackberries and raspberries carefully. Originally from Europe. #sawflies #hymenoptera #insects #nature #wasps #macrophotography #roses #rosa #symphyta #rubus