A Giant Ichneumon wasp (Megarhyssa atrata) was spotted during a photowalk along one of the informal trails at Huntley Meadows Park. This individual is a female, as indicated by its long ovipositor.
20 MAY 2015 | Huntley Meadows Park | Giant Ichneumon wasp (female)
Giant Ichneumons are “parasitoids of wood-boring insects.”
Parasitoid noun, plural parasitoids – an insect that, in the larval stage, feeds off of the tissues of its host (as does a parasite), but this feeding normally results in death of the host. Thus a parasitoid is in some ways a predator as well. Source Credit: Parasitoid, BugGuide Glossary.
20 MAY 2015 | Huntley Meadows Park | Giant Ichneumon wasp (female)
I was never able to get a clear shot of the entire wasp, including its ovipositor. Nonetheless, I was happy to “get a shot, any shot.”
20 MAY 2015 | Huntley Meadows Park | Giant Ichneumon wasp (female)
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