Exetastes maurus, A new Banchine Wasp for Suffolk
On the 5 November 2021 while doing my normal perambulation of the garden looking for insects, I came across an ichneumon wasp that I knew I had not seen before. After successfully managing to pot the individual, I took a long series of photographs which I hoped would enable identification and sent them to Jaswinder Boparai who identified it as Exetastes maurus and this was later confirmed by Dr Gavin Broad.
Exetastes maurus is a rarely seen ichneumon of the family Banchinae. This species flight period is autumnal with previous records in Britain spanning the period from late August through to the end of October. Other known British records come from Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Essex. Records from elsewhere in Europe are from Central European Russia, Hungary, Italy and Yugoslavia.
Very little is known about the biology of this species and its host is unknown but is likely to be some ‘horticultural’ Lepidoptera species due to the fact that most records are from urban/suburban locations especially around London.
Acknowledgements
My thanks to Jaswinder Boparai and Dr Gavin Broad for their help in identifying this individual.
References.
The Banchine Wasps (Ichneumonidae: Banchinae) of the British Isles. J. P. Brock. ISBN 978 1 910159 01 9
Fauna Europaea (www fauna-eu.org)
Paul Oldfield