I spent some time this week in my mother-in-law’s garden photographing wasps, bees and other insects but am finding it challenging to identify them. These wasps were unconcerned about me being close to them. As a result, I was able to get some good photographs of these fascinating insects.
I’m working on identifying conclusively the insects pictured below. The photographs were taken near the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Any assistance on the identification of the following would be greatly appreciated!
Update: Thanks to Rob Cannings from the Royal BC Museum for help identifying these wasps. For those interested in identifying species in your own backyard, the University of Alberta has a good key to northeastern species here.
Top right: Family Ichneumonidae (one of many families of parasitoid wasps)
Middle left: Family Vespidae: Subfamily Eumenidae (potter wasp)
Middle right: Vespula (one of several) or Dolichovespula arenaria…hard to tell
Bottom: Could you send larger versions of these 2 photos?
Thanks Rob! I’ll email you some larger versions this evening.