Dipping into Robert Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy, which celebrates its inexhaustible 400th year this year, I find in the glossary castril (kestrel) and tassel (tiercel, a male falcon).
“[…]he is nobody that in the season hath not a hawk on his fist. […] The Persian kings hawk after butterflies with sparrows made to that use, and stares [starlings]; lesser hawks for lesser games they have, and bigger for the rest, that they may produce their sport to all seasons. The Muscovian emperors reclaim eagles to fly at hinds, foxes, etc., and such a one was sent for a present to Queen Elizabeth; some reclaim ravens, castrils, pies [magpies, I think], etc, and man them for their pleasures.”
The superfamily Ichneumonoidea, the Braconid and Ichneumonid Wasps, are a broad and diverse taxonomic collection of parasitic wasps. All these females are hunting for the anthropoids they parasitize. But, alas, they’re really hard to ID by photograph alone. (For instance, I have 78 iNaturalist observations in this superfamily, but only 14 are identified to species level.)
Some this-is-the-best-planet coolness from Bugguide.net: “Two subfamilies of Ichneumonidae (Campopleginae and Banchinae) and 6 subfamilies of Braconidae (Microgastrinae, Miracinae, Cheloninae (including Adeliinae), Cardiochilinae, Khoikhoiinae, and Mendesellinae) carry polydnavirus DNA in their genomes, and release polydnaviruses into the host when the eggs are injected. The polydnaviruses suppress the host’s immune system, thus protecting parasitoid progeny from host defenses.”
On iNaturalist, somebody marveled at the fearsome “stinger” on one of these. But these aren’t stingers. They’re ovipositors. The female wasps are looking for the species they parasitize to lay their eggs on, or in. There are thousands of kinds of wasps in North America; very few of them sting, and then only when provoked. I’ve photographed many social wasps, the kinds that may sting, without bother. The only times I’ve been stung it’s been by by a honey bee. (Most bees don’t sting, either.)
This is a good read on the notion of “beneficial” and “pest” insects.
The annual WordPress bill comes due this time of year. Which is why I solicit donations for this blog. It costs about $400 for domain and hosting per annum, so thank you for your past, present, and future support.
I recommend Annelien De Dijn’s Freedom: An Unruly History, a look at how freedom and liberty have been defined and contested over for some 2500 years in the Western European tradition. It’s helpful in explaining the anti-democratic forces at play today in the Republican Party–they have deep antecedents in counter-revolutionary thought.
