wasp on an echinacea

paddler4

I don't know what kind of wasp this is. She was competing with a bunch of honeybees and bumble bees for space on our echinops, which are this year's favorites. I was trying to capture the purple sheen on the wings. The lighting was a real trial given the hour. handheld, 50D, 100mm L + 20mm tube, 1/200, f/13, ISO 200, flash. Sorry about the misleading title--I can't see how to edit the title. It's an echinops, which is nothing at all like an echinacea.

IPClark

I'm probably wrong but it does look like an Ichneumon wasp.

Lovely shot. Really liking the pastel purple colours and you did get the sheen nicely on the wings. Nice detail too.

BeardedChick

Yep, blue shiny wings + blue flower = very nice!

Lord Vetinari

LOvely capture- guessing it's a mud dauber wasp Genus Chalybion.
Brian V.

paddler4

Thanks all. Brian, I searched images for Chalybion, and that is what it is.

GOLDENORFE

nice, were its wings blue? or is colour reflected off the flower

paddler4

Phil,

thanks. I could not get too close, but my impression is that the blue in the wings was unrelated to the flower color. She was not positioned so that the flower color should have mattered much. However, the wings are translucent--did not seem to be coloring that made them opaque.

Dan