Not a butterfly

[Pauline]

Hi Guys

Last year I tried to describe a 'caterpillar' a friend had found on her plum tree (I hadn't actually seen it) and you tried to be helpful despite vague description. Now I know this probably isn't the appropriate site but I have huge respect for your collective knowledge. Anyway, my friend has kept the pupa all winter and I have been looking after it for her whilst she has been in America It has just emerged as this unattractive creature and I can't find anything in my 'insect' book. Do any of you have any info I can pass onto her please

[Pete Eeles]

Looks like an ichneumon wasp to me - not sure of the species though!

Cheers,

- Pete

[Pauline]

Thanks Pete. I'm sure you are right. There are just too many that are similar in this book and it has left me confused - can't find any with identical markings.

Pauline

[Lee Hurrell]

Hi Pauline,

I have found one in one of my books with a black and white body like yours, (I can just see a black and white tip to the abdomen), the somewhat scarily named sabre wasp, rhyssa persuassoria.

I might add though that the book also states there are 20,000 different species of Ichneumon Wasps so I wouldn't guarentee that as an ID!

Cheers

Lee

[ChrisC]

i rember my first experience of those Lee, it was at seal sanctuary up in scotland somewhere, had no idea at the time what it was but followed it around as the ovipositor on it (or at the time i was thinking sting) was pretty much the length of it's body. i certainly wouldn't want to be a wood wasp larvae after seeing it. watched a few tiny ones eventually decimate the aphid population on my dog rose.

Chris

[Pauline]

Hi Lee

Thanks for your suggestion but I am still not sure. If it makes it any clearer I am enclosing another image, but hey, 20,000, guess I might never know which one

[Lee Hurrell]

Hi Pauline,

It's not rhyssa persuassoria then, as that is black and white all over according to the picture I saw.

Chris - you're a brave man following one of those around!

Cheers

Lee

[alex mclennan]

A couple of years ago, I was photographing butterflies when I saw this thing land on the ground closeby. I grabbed a record shot before it flew off. It was later positively identified for me as rhyssa persuasoria.
Alex

[Padfield]

It has the classic characteristics of the genus Ichneumon. The combination of the white spots, the limited yellow on the legs and the all black antennae should narrow it down a lot within the genus. I just did a quick image search and although I found several with each character separately, I found none with all of them (yet).

Guy

[Pauline]

Hi Guy

This is obviously a challenging identification and I've not yet known you to be easily defeated - but, with 20,000 possibilities perhaps it has been narrowed down as far as possible. However, if you do find an exact match I would still be interested. I shall tell my friend to be a bit more selective in what she 'rescues' in future!