A whole flock of these guys were doodling around on the petals of this small volunteer sunflower. When any two encountered each other head-to-head, both would do these funky hand jive moves with all their antennae. Makes me long for a video camera, or more expensively, a MICRO video camera, because these guys are SMALL--a mm or less long. Picture quality is lousy because I used the 1-5X zoomed in with the flash, which means depth of field is minuscule, and even the lightest breeze will move a sunflower. . .

Other than that playing pat a cake with each other, I haven't seen them do much of anything. Looks like kind of a nice life.

At first, I thought they were sawflies, with their thick waists. But the good folks at bugguide.net, who actually know things, say these are Encrytidae--which are little parasitic Chalcidoidea wasps.


tiny wasp 2E1Z0553.jpg