[Spider with babies!]
Pholcus spider caring for her unhatched babies - Derbyshire, a few weeks ago.
#spiders #macrophotography
In other exciting wasp news - the world of the Polydnaviriformidae, where various parasitoid wasps (but probably not the one above) have co-opted viral machinery to deliver genetic material into their hosts. An example of evolution and biology being gloriously weird - with a decent overview here […]
For #insectSaturday / #insektenSamstag - a ladybird resting under a leaf.
... with a parasitoid wasp in the silken cocoon beneath its legs. (I'm not obsessed, honest!)
Dinocampus coccinellae - https://www.naturespot.org/species/dinocampus-coccinellae
#insects #ladybirds #wasps #macrophotography
#silentSunday
Even more detail here:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23938758/
... and an update on everything being renamed recently - 'Polydnaviridae' to 'Polydnaviriformidae', etc.:
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9953437/
(I could also have gone with 'koinobiont', for some much less sparkly parasitoid wasps...)
#FotoVorschlag : Objekte, die mit "K" beginnen oder so aussehen // Objects beginning with "K" or resembling it...
Kleptoparasite!
... Yes, a wasp. Aren't you all thrilled. But this one is so sparkly! Cuckoo wasp from the Chrysididae - Derbyshire, April 2026.
#insects #wasps #macrophotography