Quote:
Originally Posted by Pudding4brains
.............Specialist of the group are scarce and those that are rumoured to exist seem to have better things to do with their time than hang around on internet forums (some do however seem to be friendly toward people sending in specimen for ID  )
......... Arp |
Arp has summed the difficulties of not only ichneumons but
most Hymenoptera other than the larger bees, wasps and ants.
Ichneumons, actually are a relatively easy group compared to the parasitoid wasps: chalcids, braconids &c.. I do a bit of work on these and do have experts who kindly identify things for me - I'm not going to mention names for their sakes!
The parasitoid that I'm most interested in is
Aprostocetus neglectus - there are getting on for 700 species of this genus of the Eulophidae family (>4000 species) and they are all about 1-2mm long ... not the sort of thing that is even thinkable on a photograph unless you are a very good photographer and manage to display critical features.
.... of course, the decisive criterion for many insects is the genitalia - which don't often appear on photogarphs of a whole insect!
But I'm not trying to put you off. Go as far as you can - to Family or genus and you will have a better understanding of insect classification!