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hi Hymenoptera-forum,

When I am working next to my computer I see many times some little tiny 'thing' flying a short track in the surrounding of my halogeenlamp.
My cat is often sleeping under the lamp and I can find sometimes, after looking precisely such a 'thing' on its fur.
With my eyes it's seems flies, black and the size is about 1 or 2 mm.
Some are small, some are bigger.
Now they got my attention, I took some pictures of them and it seems to be tiny wasps..?
I can not see it very well, but they seem to live in my halogeenlamp? That must by very warm inside?! Perhabs these ones don't survive!?
But where do they come from?, they occur frequently..
Have they some relation with my cat, sound stuppid and it could be a coincidence?
Looking at some pictures, the wasps seems to be different of each other..?

You see, many questions..
maybe you can solve one?

Robert,

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wasp 1

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wasp1c

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another collected wasp

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collected wasp -3

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They are braconids and have nothing to do with your cat. They are probably attracted by the light. These could be aphid parasitoids, so maybe check if you have some aphid infested plants or flowers in or near the house.

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Thank you Paul for the hint, I 'll check my plants and try to find more..

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I think I found some aphid-mummys in my paprika-plants

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Yep - an unhatched one too - when the wasp is ready to emerge it cuts a neat round hole in the back

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Thank you Chris,

These are interesting little things

And I never mentioned these before!?

See for more of these little braconids, the other topic

Robert,