Backyard and Beyond

Starting out from Brooklyn, an amateur naturalist explores our world.

As John Burroughs said, “The place to observe nature is where you are.”

The Ovipositor

A Long-tailed Giant Ichneumenon Wasp (Megarhyssa macrurus) female. She is sniffing (antennae-ing) out the hosts of her young. She uses this long ovipositor to tuck into dead wood after the larvae of Pigeon Horntails (Tremex columba), another good-sized Hymenopteran. I’ve only seen a Tremex here in Brooklyn once.

Here are two males. They were nearby, and while the female was drilling for host larvae came to check her out.

There are actually three parts to the ovipositor.
Evans says she finds her hosts by the sensing the associated fungi around the larvae. Her ovipositor is in the hole made by the horntail now. That’s one of the males checking the scene out.
Another pass by a male.

Someone who wasn’t standing on a slope looking straight up a hickory made this movie of the whole process.

mthew

5 responses to “The Ovipositor”

  1. Sherry Felix

    Alien 😉

    Reply
  2. Monica M

    Wow, amazing nature.

    Reply
  3. Tremex columba | Backyard and Beyond

    […] going in reverse order. About a month ago, I posted pictures of Long-tailed Ichneumenon Wasps. The female was ovipositing deep in a hickory tree. Her target: the larvae of this creature, a […]

    Reply
  4. 2021, Part I | Backyard and Beyond

    […] The ovipositor of this Long-tailed Giant Ichneumenon Wasp. […]

    Reply
  5. Not As Long-tailed | Backyard and Beyond

    […] August, I watched a Long-tailed Giant Ichneumonid Wasp laying her eggs in the branch of a hickory in Green-Wood. (Spoiler: that’s not her […]

    Reply

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