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Big girl: the ovipositor is around 3" long,
plust another 2" for the wasp herself,
then give or take an inch and a half
of antennae. Splendid! |
Terrifying as she looks, the giant Ichneumon wasp is rather gentle.
Megarhyssa macrurus uses her stupendous ovipositor to find the larvae of another wasp (burrowed in tree bark) and inject a few eggs. Her babies will then dine on their host, the larva of the
pigeon tremex horntail wasp. For more information on how these species interrelate, see
Parasitoid wasps...
It sounds simple enough but really, how does she do it? It's even weirder-looking than expected:
Giant Ichneumon (Megarhyssa macrurus) Ovipositing from
Uzay Sezen on
Vimeo.
