#evaniidae

[mushrooms-and-millipedes]

A blue-eyed ensign wasp (Evania appendigaster; Family: Evaniidae) I caught recently and pointed today.

Gorgeous!

[cnestus]

Hyptia thoracica (Evaniidae)

[cnestus]

evaniids always look like they've been assembled from the spare parts of other wasps

[herpsandbirds]

what is this thing in my bathroom? SE pennsylvania USA

Wasp ID - PA, USA:

Hello, yes, this is an ensign wasp, most likely the Blue-eyed Ensign Wasp (Evania appendigaster), family Evaniidae.

Species Evania appendigaster - Blue-eyed Ensign Wasp - BugGuide.Net

[drhoz]

#2119 - Fam. Evaniidae - Hatchet Wasp

AKA ensign wasps, nightshade wasps, hatchet wasps, or cockroach egg parasitoid wasps. The family name is derived from the genus Evania, itself from the Greek euanios, meaning 'taking trouble easily'. I have no idea why that's appropriate.

All sufficiently well-studied Evaniids are parasitoids of cockroach eggcases, but since only 16 of the known 400 species are sufficiently well-studied, that doesn't mean much. Evania appendigaster and Prosevania fuscipes are both now found worldwide, because they're parasites of worldwide pest cockroaches.

Before 1939 the Evaniidae was a wastebin taxon for any oddly-shaped parasitic wasp, and the infra-order 'Parasitica' wasn't much better. Happily, the Evaniidae, Gasteruptiidae, and Aulacidae have a pretty good fossil record going back to the Middle Jurassic, although they're much less common since the late Cretaceous when the Ichneumonidae and Braconidae took over.

[reanimateobjects]

[reanimateobjects]

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