Little Oak Tree Creatures

Chalcicoid wasp, family Ormyridae, perhaps genus Ormyrus.  West Wickham Common, 23 September 2015

Here are three tiny creatures I found on an oak tree on West Wickham Common en route to doing a butterfly transect.  The first photo has a little bit of motion blur because the insect was moving around and feeling the acorn with its antennae; I have now speeded up my standard setting to allow for this sort of thing.

It's a little iridescent wasp.  There are lots of small parasitic wasps, some of which, for example, lay their eggs in creatures that live inside oak galls.  This one doesn't seem to have the right ovipositor for that sort of thing - it would be long and thin - but I don't think it's investigating this acorn in search of a nice vegetarian meal.

It's quite showy, though you can see from the size of the acorn it is walking on that it is really small.

Acorn Weevil (probably), Curculio glandium.  Curculionidae.  West Wickham Common, 23 September 2015

This is a nut weevil.  There are several similar species, and calling this an acorn weevil is just a guess based on it being on an acorn at the time.  Other weevils have also been seen on acorns.  But it's definitely a Curculio species.

These weevils have very weird jointed antennae emerging part way down their proboscis.   Thejoint is mobile, and the arms of the antennae can be brought back to lie parallel to and touching the proboscis.

Araniella species.  Araneidae.  West Wickham Common, 23 September 2015

The third invertebrate is a little green orb web spider, an Arianella. (There are two very similar species.)  Its web is small enough to fit across a single oak leaf and its colour disguises it well.  I think it is a pretty little creature.  Here it was not moving, so I got a sharp image!