Mating Wasps in flight!

l2oBiN

I thought I would share this rare capture I have managed to take by chance. Its not the greatest of images but I beleive it is a rare capture.

Lord Vetinari

Lovely capture- rare to get mating wasps let alone in flight
Brian V.

l2oBiN

Lord Vetinari wrote:

Lovely capture- rare to get mating wasps let alone in flight
Brian V.

Which one is the male and which one the female? I suppose the male is the top one? How can you tell them apart? They seemed to have preety big Jaws.

I was amazed that they moved their stingers away whil mating.

Lord Vetinari

l2oBiN wrote:

Which one is the male and which one the female? I suppose the male is the top one? How can you tell them apart? They seemed to have preety big Jaws.

I was amazed that they moved their stingers away whil mating.

Yes the male will be on top.

Apart from possible abdomen size differences, not sure how to sex wasps (obviously easy with ichneumons), with colonial wasps it can be done I think by the number of antennae segments.

stevehapp

excellent shot.
well done

Jfive

you can tell by the antennae, the males is hooked while the females is not.

blacksmith

Very good moment and nice capture. TFS