We typically think of parasites as those that feed on us from the inside. But parasitoid wasps, like this Giant Ichneumon (Megarhyssa atrata), take a different tack. The large mom wasp will seek out a tree where another wasp–pigeon horntails are favored–has already laid her eggs. She taps her antennae on soft fungus-infected or rotting wood until she senses the horntail’s larvae. Delighted, she bores into the wood with her humongous ovipositor, a handy tool constructed of three mineral hardened parts and of a length up to four inches! She vibrates the tips, allowing the ovipositor to bore into the wood, until she lays a single egg upon the host larvae, a process that lasts up to an hour.
So draining is the ordeal that she passes shortly after laying all her eggs. In fact, it is her sole purpose in life. Smaller gentleman wasps were already waiting to mate with her as she emerged from her own parasitized nest (they heard her chewing her way out, of course). And within less than 30 days, she will have laid her own eggs and bid the world adieu.
