Happy New Year?! Not for this harvestman! Two hours later and Photo 11 shows all that was left of the Pantopsalis. The end photos show the chubby peripatus two hours later. Not sure if the peripatus had 15 or 16 pairs of legs (end photos best for leg counts but not conclusive).
We have some Orb web egg sac's under the carport that we keep an eye on to see if any parasitic wasps appear, as they sometimes do and this morning there were about 7 or 8 of these wasps all over them. Not sure what they were up to, so any id on the wasp!
Those unfurled wings are exquisite.
Lost some of the green iridescence when drying out. The last photo is while still wet.
Caught in window/yellow pan trap combo
A tiny parasitoid wasp that appears to be laying eggs into a fresh Siphanta acuta egg-cushion on the underside of a Lacebark leaf.
Collected by Kat Douglas. Scale bar=1mm
Native Podocarp-broadleaved forest, under a damp decomposing wood.
I didn't expect this when I flipped the piece of wood. Carefully placed back after getting images.
Grafton Gully at Symonds St Cemetery, Grafton, Auckland. Larvae on lower surface of Ganoderma.
Single specimen flew into our house and created a mud coccoon on a piece of fabric.
A nest chamber got knocked off a house wall, so I opened it for a look. Spiders inside were two salticids, theridiids and maybe tetragnathids. The spider at bottom with dark abdomen has a wasp grub on its back. The larger of the two salticids (top right) is 4mm long.
Compare species composition with this observation:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/72975802
The large sand scarab grub appears to be being attacked by the wasp.
Two males going at it!
Three-chambered nest, shortly after completion and sealing of the middle chamber.
Second photo shows contents of middle chamber: Eight jumping spiders (Hypoblemum griseum) and one Clubiona sp. Jumping spider on left has a wasp egg on its abdomen.
See this observation for image of wasp working on the middle chamber on the previous day:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/72975801
Large wasp with large Nursery web spider prey.