A while back, I wrote a post about semitransparent patches in Ceraphronoidea. These patches are present in all Ceraphronoidea, and can be found on the dorsal and ventral surfaces of the metasoma.
I noticed that the dorsal and ventral patches on a wasp can have different shapes and sizes; this week, I wanted to see if the patches varied between different species of wasps.
On Conostigmus crassicornis, shown below, the dorsal patches are more elongated than the ventral patches.
![](https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5651/22819775142_07d057fbe5.jpg)
I looked at the dorsal semitransparent patches in another species, C. bipunctatus (below) and found that they were more rounded, like the ventral patches of C. crassicornis.
![](https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/630/22210716554_aae4a0123e.jpg)
But on another species, which we have designated Conostigmus sp. 3 for now (below), the dorsal semitransparent patches are elongated, similar to Conostigmus crassicornis.
![](https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/585/22807426186_b3a553ae96.jpg)
Could these patches be used to tell apart different species of wasps? I’m not sure, but I intend to keep checking the patches on different species and find out!
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