Proctotrupidae family

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Proctos, 11.12.2007 7:30

Oxyserphus clypeatus (Ashmead, 1893), female.
It is a parasite on coleoptera larvae that live in tinder mushrooms.
Range: North America, Japan, South Kuril
user posted image Islands

Comments

29.12.2007 20:24, Proctos

Especially when you consider the size of this bug. You can only envy the patience and thoroughness of the author.
How is Oxyserphus fundamentally different from our Cryptoserhus? Or in a new format?
Is it Helicon Focus + Photoshop?
Why isn't the background gray ?

That's right, this is Helicon Focus + Photoshop, the best combination to date. The font is not gray (and it was gray when shooting!) due to the fact that this is an illustration for a magazine article, where there will be black and white photos. Unfortunately, in this scenario, the gray background loses. But for the Internet or if the magazine provides colored PDF files, a gray background is quite appropriate. Well, maybe only if the object itself is monotonously colored (black and gray) , then in this case, white is probably better.
As for the differences between Oxyserphus and Cryptoserphus – they differ in their range. O. This is the second largest genus in the family and almost all of it lives in the tropics and subtropics. Only one species lives in the Palearctic (described by me!

), in the Nearctic there is also 1 species (actually depicted in the photo). C. this is mostly a holoarctic genus that enters the Oriental and Neotropical regions at high altitudes in the mountains, a situation common for many groups of insects. Morphologically, O. and S. are similar (one tribe), although there are enough distinguishing features. It should be noted that proctotrupids are rather monotonous in appearance, however, this is typical of many families of riders.