Hi Helene,
I agree with Tony. It looks like as Hymenoptera Braconidae a parasitic
wasp (similar to the genus Spathius) . Do you have an infestation of
Coleoptera Anobidae? However also Dermistidae are reported to be
parasitised by Braconidae.
Sincerely
Barbara
'Helene Delaunay' via MuseumPests <pestlist@googlegroups.com> ha scritto:
Hello,
I wonder if someone could help with the identification of this
insect, found at the back of a painting on goat hide in a museum in
Nairobi, Kenya.
The three photos are of the same insect under different angles.
Would anyone know whether it is an endemic pest, and what it
feeds on, or just a non-pest insect?
What puzzles me is that live flying insects of a similar size
were spotted in one of the showcases of the museum in a nearby room.
I tried to catch one of these but failed! (there was no insect trap)
The showcase contains only inorganic materials, apart from a few
unaffected amber beads.
The insects have left webbing on the barkcloth lining the back of
the showcase which is used as a background for the display. Debris
were also spotted on a glass shelf (see photos 001 & 004).
There is no obvious grazing on the barkcloth, but “loose webbing”
is present behind a display label (photo 005). Is it possible that
the insects are not feeding of the barkcloth, but just hatching on it?
It seems weird that they would settle in a display case
containing inorganic objects, when there are many other display
cases nearby, with the same barkcloth background, containing objects
made of organic / plant material.
I’m trying to gage how likely it is that the infestation could
spread to collection objects made of other plant materials and would
be grateful if anyone could shed some light on this.
Many thanks,
Helene
HELENE DELAUNAY | Organics Conservator
Conservation, Collection Care
The British Museum, Great Russell Street
London WC1B 3DG
hdelau...@britishmuseum.org | +44 (0) 20 7323 8252
Please note: I work 3 days / week, Monday to Wednesday.
/Email status: OFFICIAL/
--
Barbara Manachini
DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURAL, FOOD AND FOREST SCIENCES (SAAF)
University of Palermo
Viale delle Scienze, 13 90128 Palermo
ITALY
E-mail barbara.manach...@unipa.it
Tel. (+39) 091 238 91827
--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"MuseumPests" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to pestlist+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit
https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/pestlist/20220329223006.Horde.rBHU6bRtia45CSfo9fZrqY4%40webmail.unipa.it.
