A tiny wasp with enormous numbers of descendants - Polyembrionic Copidosom sp.

I am still trying to keep my basil plant alive, through short days and some freezing nights. But most of the larger leaves are falling off anyway. So now several dry, rolled up ones became very obvious. Each contained a cocoon - similar to that of the green noctuid moth caterpillars that sometimes compete with me for the basil leaves.
But the cocoons were quite thin, likely unfinished, and inside was a rather repulsive looking, thick sausage with no recognizable organisation. 

Cocoons of noctuid moth caterpillars on basil. The caterpillars were killed by parasites

The casing was stretched thin enough to be transparent, so I could see that it was stuffed full of little grains, like rice, but each only less than 0.5mm long.

Under magnification, little eyes became visible on those white grains. So probably really parasites. Larval (or pupal) wasps rather than flies, because those eyed creatures did not look like headless maggots. 

Copidosoma spp, Pupae

But so many? I had never seen anything like it. So I posted them on BugGuide.net and my Facebook Group SW US Arthropods. 
Charles Melton and Dennis Haines had the answer quickly: 

Copidosoma spp, adult female

A Chalcid wasp in the genus Copidosoma (Pentalitomastix) was behind this amazing find.
The tiny, 1.5mm long wasp female produced just a few eggs, and probably even spread those among the three affected caterpillars that I found.  But she did not actually attack the grown caterpillar, she had laid her eggs early, right when a moth female deposited her eggs on my basil plant.
The wasp eggs multiplied then by cloning into as many as a few thousand (polyembryony). The larvae didn't begin growing until the caterpillar has reached a certain size. So they all uniformly ended up killing their caterpillar just as it was about to spin a cocoon and pupate. 
I collected two of the cocoons to see what will emerge. Dennis Haines remarked that these wasps are obviously interesting for researchers working on biological control, but they are difficult to raise in captivity. 
The sex of the larvae seems to be determined by temperature ... just one more fascinating aspect.

12 days after I discovered the caterpillar full of pupae, tiny wasps are hatching. This one is sitting next to some writing in font size 12, so you see that they are barely 1mm long.

A day later, the container was alive with thousands of little wasps, and some were already mating. So I quickly released them on my lattice plants that often get eaten by noctuid caterpillars. I wish the little wasp females luck in finding any moth eggs in the middle of winter!

Better here: https://flic.kr/p/QKNxHH

PS: there is already another generation pupating in another noctuid cat, again on basil. This is now happening in February, while we actually had a very rare snow fall righr here. Picture Rocks, Pima Co, AZ elev ca 2500 feet. 

New Bird Paintings

Elegant Trogons have been breeding in SE Arizona canyons for years. They like the cavities in the creamy white trunks of our Sycamores. The barking call of the males can be heard every spring and summer. But some are now staying during the winter. They feed on Pyracantha Berries (planted) when the endemic Madrones are bare. This year at Madera Canyon the Trogon shares them with a White-throated Thrush, a singular migrant from Mexico. That one, of course, drives the birding community nuts.  They stand forty people deep around the bush armed with their huge lenses on tripods.
I much preferred to peacefully paint the pretty Trogon ...

Several male Pyrrhuloxia or Desert Cardinals used to defend territories in our back and frontyard and feed on the very hot little peppers that I really just keep for them, the Verdins and the Trashers. But this spring I have not seen any Pyrrholoxia. Is it just too early? But they don't migrate and my friends in Green Valley see plenty.  I hope my new painting brings them back to us!

Flowers and Snow Herald the Start of 2019

Saguaro National Park West, 1/1/2019

Snow is rare but not really too unusual in the Tucson Mountains. But the beginning of 2019 is also marked by a profusion of blooming Brittle Bush, Desert Marigolds, even some blooming Ocotillos. Along interstate 8, we saw carpets of purple Sand Verbena on our Christmas trip to San Diego. I have not seen so many flowers and snow together in other years, even though the snow often arrives here in late February.
But the insects that are usually visiting those blooming bushes are nowhere to be seen.  So the early flowers may herald a really great wild flower spring for 2019, but the normal rhythms seem quite disturbed.

Happy Holidays 2018