Length: Males 6 to 16mm, Females 11 to 15mm. (Parrott 1952, page 167)
Like most members of the family Ichneumonidae this wasp is a parasite of moth and/or butterfly larva of various species. According to Gauld (1984, page 332), hosts include the Australian Admiral.
Classification
from Australian Faunal Directory
Order Hymenoptera - Wasps, Ants, Bees and Sawflies, 12202 named species in Australia
Family Ichneumonidae - parasitic wasps, 472 named species in Australia
Subfamily Pimplinae - 60 named species in Australia
Genus Echthromorpha
Species Echthromorpha intricatoria
Description
Extracted from Parrott (1952), pages 164-168. See original document for figures.
Female
Head. Vertex black, red-brown between posterior ocelli and eyes, shining, impunctate, sparsely clothed with long, erect, pale-coloured hairs, posterior slope nearly vertical. Ocellar region black, rugulose, with a few fine erect hairs; Ocelli moderate size, posterior situated about their diameter from eyes and nearly 2 diameters from each other, and less than a diameter from anterior ocellus, which is slightly smaller. Frontal excavation black, deep and transversely aciculated; Face red-brown, punctate and clothed with long, light-coloured hairs; face wider (16) than long (12); internal orbits sharply indented above base of antennae; Clypeus red-brown, minutely punctate, and sparsely clothed with light-coloured hairs; wider than long, suture deep, roundly concave viewed from the front. Malar space wide, nearly equal to the length of the mandibles; Mandibles small, brown, with the tips of the teeth black, the upper tooth longer than lower tooth and both finely pointed; Cheeks black, bordered around outer orbits with red-brown, sparsely punctate, shining, clothed with long, light- coloured hairs. Eyes black, with irregular streaks and blotches of dark-grey.
Antennae. Scape brown, deeply excavated dorsally; flagellum entirely brown, darkening towards apex and thickly clothed with short adpressed golden pubescence; 1st segment longest and segments decreasing in length to 11th or 12th, after which they are sub-equal, except apical segment, which is slightly longer, the 5th segment is approximately as long as the 1st segment.
Thorax. Pronotum black, rugulose, sometimes with a small yellow mark on dorsal border. Mcsonotum black, coarsely punctate, clothed with fine whitish pubescence, notauli only faintly indicated anteriorly; Tegulae dark-brown with a few shallow punctures, shining, sparsely pubescent. Scutellar foveae deep, with a series of transverse ridges, lateral carinae high with a yellow mark at base of mesonotum; scutellum black with a few shallow punctures, somewhat convex, sloping posteriorly, lateral carinae reaching to about of its length, surface clothed with a few long hairs. Post-scutellum yellow, shining, impunctate, lateral excavations at the side of post-scutellum, deep and longitudinally and finely ridged. Mesopleurae black, with a small yellow spot on sub-alar tubercle, a small yellow spot varying in size at base of hind-wing, and a larger yellow spot at the posterior ventral angle of the mesopleurae, strongly punctate, especially at the sides, punctures widely separated in the centre; suture straight and transversely ridged; sub-alar tubercle distinct Sternum black, thickly punctate. Metopleurae black, a circular yellow spot in centre, coarsely punctate, the whole sclerite slightly swollen. Propodeum black with posterior lateral tubercles yellow, anteriorly rugulosely punctate, posteriorly finely transversely aciculated; propodeum spiracles elongated, slightly raised, and placed about 3 times their length from anterior border of propodeum Coxae: anterior coxae red-brown, punctate and clothed with long, light-coloured hairs; middle and posterior coxae black, irregularly punctate On dorsal surface the punctures are widely spaced, with a few light-coloured hairs scattered over the surface. Legs. Trochantus, anterior red-brown; middle with 1st joint black, 2nd joint red-brown; posterior with both joints block. Femur all red-brown, posterior pair swollen, with an obsolete ventral longitudinal groove; Tibiae red-brown, thickening towards apex; Tibial spurs thick, about the length of 1st tarsal joint; Tarsus red-brown, 1st and 5th joints sub-equal, 2nd longer than 3rd, 4th joint very small; minute spines on ventral surface, especially numerous on the 5tli joint. Tarsal claws as figured (Fig. 5).
Wings (Figs. 6, 7, 8, 9). Forewmg, 1st abscissa of radial straight, 2nd abscissa curved; areolet (Fig 9) petiolate; 2nd recurrent bent in centre, with 2 bullae; cubital with 1 bulla; 3rd abscissa of discordal with a bulla at its junction with anal. Stigma and veins dark brown, a clouded dark-brown spot covering the apical third of radial cell and extending slightly beyond radius into third cubital cell. Kind-wings. Abscissula nearly as long as marginal (radiella), a bulla at its lower half, recurrent vein oblique, broken at top, nervellus (Fig. 8) continuous with 1st abscissa of median, thus strongly reclivous. Veins brown.
Abdomen Black with a large yellow spot on each of the posterial lateral angles of each of the first tergites. 1st tergite sessile, widest at posterior border, which is 1.6 times as wide between spiracles. Distance between spiracles is a little less than the distance from the spiracles to posterior border of tergite. Spiracles situated on moderately prominent tubercles, a longitudinal dorsal fovea, and an obsolete transverse ridge along posterior border, which is produced medially. 2nd tergite is 1.73 as wide apieally as long and 1.4 as wide at apex as at base, on each side there is an oblique lateral groove reaching to about the middle of the segment, along the grooves are coarse punctures; the tergite convex with a few large but shallow punctures scattered over the surface The posterior border slightly raised; in front of each of the yellow spots there is an obsolete transverse groove. 3rd tergite, sides parallel, as wide posteriorly as anteriorly, 1.75 as long as wide, the oblique lateral grooves very short, reaching only to the 1st quarter of the length of the segment and punctate. The whole abdomen is shining and very sparsely punctured. 8th tergite fringed posteriorly with thick golden hairs.
Ovipositor: Sheaths black-brown, covered with golden pubescence.
Male
Face brownish-yellow to yellow, more thickly covered by a white pubescence. Malar space usually black. Pubescence on thorax somewhat denser than in female and the mesopleurae more evenly punctate, a small yellow spot is generally present on the anterior surface of middle coxae and the fore-coxae. Tegulae yellow, the posterior 3/4 black. The small yellow mark on dorsal margin of pronotum is more clearly marked than in the females. In some specimens there is a small yellow spot in centre of the anterior margin of the scutellum. Posterior tarsi with last joint infuscated with black.
Abdomen. 1st tergite, the posterior edge is more markedly protruding centrally, and a shallow and wide longitudinal depression from the spiracles which nearly reaches the posterior border. The distance between the spiracles is 1.25 the distance from the spiracles to the posterior border of the tergite. The 7th abdominal tergite occasionally has a small posterior lateral yellow spot.
Variation in Echthromorpha intricatoria
This species is rather constant in colour and pattern. In the case of the males, a small yellow mark is sometimes present on the posterior coxae and on the scutellum. The punctation of the propodeum appears to vary in intensity, as well as the large but shallow punctures on the abdominal tergites.
Size A considerable variation in size occurs. The minimum, maximum and average lengths are given in the following table.
| Minimum | Maximum | Average | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Males | 6.0 | 16.0 | 11.7 |
| Females | 11.0 | 15.0 | 12.5 |
The males show an extremely wide range, more than twice that shown for the females; although odd male specimens may be very large, the majority were on an average smaller than the females.
The number of joints in the flagellum varied from 32 to 38 in the case of the males and from 34 to 36 in the females. Although greater variation is shown in the case of the males, the average number of joints in the flagellum is very similar in both sexes.
References
- Gauld, I.D. (1984) An introduction to the Ichneumonidae of Australia. British Museum of Natural History.
- Parrott, A.W. 1952. New Zealand Ichneumonidae II. Tribe Echthromorphini (Pimplini). Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand 80: 155-170