#trogusvulpinus

[addicted2wasps]

Scariest costume ever!

I ended up coming up with an idea for something spooky, so I drew it. 

The wasp is Trogus vulpinus, a parasitoid of Papilio canadensis and other spp. 

Obviously, the wasp is not quite to scale, but for the purpose of the theme, drawing a giant one makes sense.

I hope everyone has a great Halloween on Tuesday!

[addicted2wasps]

To no one's surprise, I drew a comic regarding yesterday's weird-o Ichneumonid wasp. A face only a mother could love. Seriously, though, I think it looks pretty badass. "For female wasps to successfully access and oviposit into hosts living within substrates, this either requires an elongate ovipositor, or an ability on the part of the female wasp to navigate through the substrate to reach the host for direct oviposition. The latter option appears to have driven evolution of various types of facial protrusions, which at least in the case of the ichneumonid genus Genaemirum Heinrich, 1936, has led to the hypothesis that the highly modified spade-like protrusions of the clypeus and genae are used in a shoveling manner to facilitate negotiation of the frass-filled tunnels created by the wood-boring host moth caterpillar, in order to reach the pupae for oviposition." https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Genaemirum-phacochoerus-sp-n-Holotype-female-A-habitus-lateral-view-inset-data_fig3_310794998