I recently read on Catalogue of Organisms (http://coo.fieldofscience.com/2014/05/wasps-with-fangs-on-their-feet.html) that pimpline ichneumonid wasps have enlarged claws on their hind tarsi that may or may not contain a fluid used in defense or host incapacitation. I was wondering if anyone happened to have pictures of these claws, as I cannot find any pictures of them anywhere (and being a vertebrate specialist am not sure where to look) or knows if there are any potential representatives of this group in the fossil record.
Thank you so much. By any chance, do you know off the top of your head which other fossil pimplines are said to have large tarsal claws? I know that some genera of the group have secondarily lost them.
I realize that there would be little reason to discuss venom production in the claws of fossil pimplines, seeing as any venom would be long gone and the claws are probably crushed in the first place, so just knowing if they have tarsal claws is helpful. Do any pimplines have large tarsal claws, but no hollow cavities for venom?
Sorry for the long delay with the answer! Hope you are still interested on poison claws! :-) Ian Gauld published some SEM-images of the pimpline poison claws in his monograph of the Costa Rican Pimplinae (Volume I).
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