Ichneumon wasp - genus Mesostenus

An ichneumon wasp I found yesterday on a walk.
Insects can be very hard to identify.  Most of us are pretty good at the local and very generic classification system in common use.  Ladybug, butterfly, ant, fly is the vocabulary most of us have for the 6 legged creatures we find in our midst.  Being more specific than that becomes increasingly difficult because of the sheer variety and the lack of general knowledge.  Although I really enjoy discovering new and interesting "bugs", my passion falls in the area of photographing them and sharing related information to others.

On a walk yesterday I came across the small beast in the above image.  Equipped with my birding lens and camera, I was not able to get a great picture of it.  The photo above was the best I could muster - the final image represents a significant crop of the original file.  Yet it was enough to identify it to the genus level.  It is an icheumon, genus Mesostenus.

I spent a considerable amount of time trying to find out which species it was.  Just to be clear, there are about 50 species of this genus worldwide, some classified as recently as 1978.  The one that came closest was Mesostenus thoracicus, but its white highlights are absent from the one I found.  Regardless of all that, it was an interesting search and I learned a few things.

Ichneumids are solitary wasps and do not pose a stinging hazard.  The one I found is a female; the long black protrusion off the end is an ovipositor, not a stinger.  After mating the female lays an egg onto the larva of an insect, usually a beetle grub, that lays buried inside the wood.  She uses her antennae to "look for" a larva by drumming on a potential log with them.  When found the wasp will insert the ovipositor into the wood and lay an egg on the soon-to-be parasitized host.  I have seen other members of the ichneumid family drumming in search of a suitable dining experience for its young.

These wasps are beneficial to humans because they reduce the number of wood-boring insects damaging important timber stock.  If you see one enjoy the marvel of it and respect the fact that it is not harmful to you in any way.

Thanks for reading.   www.ericspix.com   Eric Svendsen




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