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what's this creature

primrosecottageprimrosecottage Posts: 817
in Fruit & veg

Hi guysimage any idea what this critter is he was on my pots of strawberries

image

.  Is he doing any harm ? image

 

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  • Jimmy CrawfordJimmy Crawford Posts: 468

    No idea what it is, photo is a bit blurry. I will say though most of the Strawberrys predators are either fungal, nematodes or fairly tiny beetles and mites. Here's hoping it's just popped in to have a feed on something else.

  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 21,555

    I think that it is a type of ichneumon wasp though the picture is pretty out of focus.

    If it is an ichneumon wasp then it is a friend. The females have a long ovipositor that looks like a long sting sticking out the back. With this she lays an egg inside a caterpillar. The egg hatches into a grub and the grub eats the caterpillar from the inside out. Then the wasp hatches and flies away to find a partner....image

    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • bekkie hughesbekkie hughes Posts: 5,294
    I thought predetory wasp too, but im not as clever as pansyface image
  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 21,555

    image

    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286

    Species is Amblyteles armatorius, pansyface had it spot on one of the Ichneumonidae and an attractive one at that. image

    Parasitic wasp, no sting, friend in the garden. image

     

    http://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/amblyteles-armatorius

  • primrosecottageprimrosecottage Posts: 817

    Thanks Pansy imagelWish I was as clever as youimage lesson learned if in doubt don't swat or stamp glad I asked first  imagenot keen on wasps usually especially those with fancy names I'm not able to get my tongue roundimage

    Thanks for the website Gemma  I'll have a look at it later image

  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286

    I didn't spot the yellow bars on the antennae earlier, think you have it CN with stramentor more  here:

    http://www.naturespot.org.uk/species/ichneumon-stramentor

  • pansyfacepansyface Posts: 21,555

    I'm not clever at all primrose, I just had a lovely dad who taught me from my earliest days that I should like nature and not to see it as something to be nervous about. When I was about 4 or 5 he would take me on walks round the garden getting me to count the wings on flies and teaching me to pronoune words like "diptera" even though I had no idea what diptera were. I just soaked things up in the spongelike way that small children do. Now I can't remember what I just wrote on my shopping list but I still remember the things he told me then..image

    Apophthegm -  a big word for a small thought.
    If you live in Derbyshire, as I do.
  • GemmaJFGemmaJF Posts: 2,286

    My Dad showed  me a newt he found in the garden when I was about 4 years old pansyface, it was the most amazing thing I had ever seen and I'm still fascinated by them.

    After that I was always looking in the garden for things and got more and more interested as I went along. First time I saw a parasitic wasp it hatched from a pupa I found in the ground. Put it in a jar and waited an awfully long time. Half expecting a butterfly I got a bit of shock when I got back from school on the day it hatched out. Still thought it was wonderful though. image

  • primrosecottageprimrosecottage Posts: 817

    Pansy&Gemma sounds like you had a lovely timeimage  I wasn't being sarcastic just admiring wish I had knowledge past down image please don't take offence. 

    Charlie that's the kiddie a handsome guy isn't heimage

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