wasp, unknown ID

[johnkermit1]

looking for bugs, didnt find much at the river, where i go fishing.
saw this wasp?....and in left hand corner...something i didnt see..til i looked at the image later:o
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee303/johnkermit/wasp3.jpg
and a crop to show some better detail
http://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee303/johnkermit/WASP3-1.jpg

[LordV]

Good captures- a lovely ichneumon wasp - amazing colour scheme- looks like another one top left hiding
brian V.

[johnkermit1]

thanks Brian!
i have never seen one like it...i didnt see anything alive, (other than woodlouse under a large rock....(the shots didnt come out...)
and i didnt notice the other bug at all....lol
but when i first saw it, it had its back curled up and straightening, back and forth...etc.
i missed shots of it unfortunately.

[johnkermit1]

i should share a new homemade diffuser that i used.
it is made of a coffeemate creamer bottle (the small one)
it is a bit bulky, but i like the results i got!
I cut a rectangle shaped slit into the bottle (three sides cut, with long side facing the red cap used as the folding edge, so the curvature fits to the camera,
i kept the one edge, so i could fold it , so it would fit snugly against the flash)

i have seen something like this on the forum a while back, and i wanted to try it out!

[LordV]

Sounds like you actually caught the ichneumon drilling/egg laying like the one below

brian V

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1383/543793667_aab73db955.jpg

[johnkermit1]

i was thinking that, but i didnt see any eggs...with that diffuser, it was hard to get any other angle, and i didnt want to disturb it.
the "tail" on mine, doesnt look as pointy,....but this same pose in your picture was going on..thanks !

[Mike4BekA]

very nice shot john! man your shots have come a LONG way from when you started posting! Great to see! Also kudos on the homemade diffuser!

[alliec]

I agree with Mike, your work is definatley improving, next step is a DSLR :-)

[johnkermit1]

thanks LordV, Mike and Alistair!
it will be a while til i can afford a DSLR.
i was thinking about a raynox 250 macro adapter for the s3, to give me something to play with while i save...but we'll see.
thanks for comments!