Natural History Photographs


Stizoides melanopterus
Göksü delta (Mersin), Turkey; 16 - 17 June 2011.
Stizoides tridentata
Letoon (Muğla), Turkey; 10 June 2009.
Female feeding at Allium spec. First - and second! - impression is you see a Scolid wasp; however, it isn't. The stunning likeness to the Scolidae makes one easily think this is a clear case of mimicry. But then, why would a wasp resemble another wasp from a distantly related family? Within Crabronidae, there is plenty of aposematic coloration to be found - yet except for Stizoides not the Scolid pattern. So there is a bit of a mystery in this color pattern...