Jun 20
This alien-looking thing, Hybrizon buccatus, is in my opinion one of the strangest ichneumonids in Europe.
Members of the genus Hybrizon are parasitoids of ants. This is already unusual, but it gets stranger. They specifically target ant larvae, and their only opportunity to do so is when worker ants carry them outside the nest. Females swoop in, inject a egg, before quickly escaping the angry workers. This feels almost too specific to be real to me, but nature apparently found a way.
H. buccatus is tiny, with a fore wing only around 2-3 mm long. In Northern Europe it is the most common Hybrizon species, I’ve personally seen it hovering above ant-trails on several occasions.
Collected by me on the swedish island of Gotland in 2025.