Ichneumon wasp drilling

Lord Vetinari

Had an Ichneumon wasp visit the dead tree trunk I moved from my neighbours garden (for the digger wasp activity) after it fell over. The wasp happily set up a drilling operation on the trunk.
Brian v.

IPClark

Greast Series Brian. Lovely to see them at work.

David-Stallard

Put my hand up here - I have never heard of yet alone seen anything like this, terrific shot's but I have to ask. . . . what is it 'drilling' for?

.DAVID.

Lord Vetinari

Thanks ian and david for the comments

David - ichneumon wasps parasitise other bugs, in this case this species parasitises probably beetle larvae which are burrowing in the dead wood. The wasp first locates a larva by smell using it's antennae - amazing to watch this as they walk along with the antennae roughly out straight and when they get a hit the antennae start curving down effectively pointing where the smell is coming from. The wasp then gets it's drilling ovipositor setup - drills through the wood hopefully to where the larva is and then lays an egg in or on the larva. apparently the "drills" of these ladies are tipped with metals to harden them
Brian v.

DeVil

Great shots and wasp drilling explanation

David-Stallard

Brian - thanks for that.

.DAVID.

SnoopMacro

Wonderful set, and thanks for the info.
Looks like she hit rock in #5

Lord Vetinari

Thanks Ken and Devil for the comments
She obviously did either miss or run into drilling problems when she was doing this as she restarted several times in slightly different positions.
Brian v.