I have now been told that the ichneumonid that is ovipositing from under the leaf is one of the Ctenopelmatinae, possibly one of the Campodorus sp., which have been reared from Nematus sp. larvae.
The under-the-leaf oviposition technique is not in the literature, so this might be one of the first times it has been observed, and certainly the first time it has been recorded. One reasonable theory is that the larvae are very aggressive with their defence reflex (a sudden whipping of the rear of the body, pulling it up into the characteristic 'S' shape), so the Campodorus is actually protecting itself from the Nematus larva's protection reflex. This ties in nicely with the observation that the secondary parasite checks for the presence/absence of this response before it lays its own eggs from a straddle position. I suspect that the Campodorus egg subdues the Nematus larva to some extent (but why? Certainly, it differentiates an already parasitised larva from a clean one, thereby avoiding duplicate [and therefore wasteful] primary parasitisation, but it also makes it easier for the secondary parasite to detect the primary parasite and lay its own egg. A double-edged sword. )
Moving on to the Entoloma from Ards forest: it appears to be Entoloma serrulatum. These are the spores:
Magnification is 400x, the spores are mounted in water and the individual spores are around 10 microns long.
