Perithous scurra

Perithous Scurra is a Pimpline Ichneumon Wasp of the tribe Delomeristini with a predominately red thorax with yellow marginal stripes to mesonotum, yellow  transverse stripes to scutellum and the hind coxae are also red. The abdomen is black with a narrow yellow arch to the propodeum with the second tergite having a distinct, longitudinal, median keel. The head is black with yellow/white inner orbits. The ovipositor in females is longer than its abdomen with an ovipositor to hind tibia index ~ 4.5 - 5.0.

Perithous divinator which has a much shorter ovipositor and lacks the keel to T2

• Red mesoscutum with yellow lateral marginal stripes
• Red hind coxae
• Black propodeum with narrow yellow arch
• Tergite 2 has distinct, longitudinal, median keel
• Ovipositor length aproximately 4.5 - 5.0 times length of hind tibia
• Yellow/white inner orbits

Identification advice should be sought from British Ichneumonoidea Facebook

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Hedgerows, copses, and wooded areas where wood and stem boring insects are found

Long flight period of May - November with a peak of activity June - July

Perithous scurra targets the larvae of a wide variety of wood and stem boring, solitary wasps inculding Pemphredon, Ancistrocerus and Trypoxylon species.

The female will use its long ovipositor to deposit an egg into the larva of the host which, when hatched, will consume the host larva and the provisions for it before pupating an emerging as an adult.

Widespread across UK but relatively underrecorded