#woodwasp

[addicted2wasps]

I was today years old when I heard about the incredible Incense-Cedar Wood Wasp. Syntexis libocedrii is the only living species of Symphytan in the Anaxyelidae. It is considered a living fossil since the family has an extensive Mesozoic fossil record. It has the unique ability to oviposit in burnt incense-cedar. The wood is often still smoldering when the sawfly is laying its eggs. Nature is fascinating.

[onenicebugperday]

@philoursmars submitted: Bonjour ! Quelle est cette étrange guêpe vue en forêt normande ? Merci d'avance !

Philoursmars

What a lovely lady! She’s currently depositing her eggs, great shot. She’s a giant woodwasp, Urocerus gigas, which is a type of horntail :)

[citrus-ant]

daily bug 3

This is the banded horntail! it is a member of the same family wasps are, but these guys actually can't hurt you! Harmless bugs that mimic aggressively defensive bugs are some of my favs

rbs are super appreciated aaaa

[anthropocenesketchbook]

More drawings of horntails! They are beautiful and fascinating, especially their relationship with their fungal symbiont, which predigests the wood their larvae will eat. #klamathtrex2019 #goodfire #horntail #woodwasp #symbiosis #californiahorntail #uroceruscalifornicus #whitehornedhorntail #urocerusalbicornis #giantwoodwasp #urocerusgigas #pigeontremex #tremexcolumba https://www.instagram.com/p/B4k9bI9A3xp/?igshid=1dgvmluevtxqk

[addicted2wasps]

That horntail larva is doomed. Don't fall into the giant ichneumon "knock-knock" trap! While it is obvious that no dialogue happens in real life, Megarhyssa macrurus are able to detect their hosts (Tremex columba), through bark and parasitize them.

[addicted2wasps]

This concept may or may not be used. I was requested to draw a comic of several tired Hymenopterans attending a virtual conference. Even if this idea gets scrapped, I still had lots of fun drawing this!

[onenicebugperday]

@titconao3 submitted: as i was walking (in continental France), a bug decided to come chill on my mask. it was lethargic and didn't move at all as i as angled the fabric every which way to get a pic, and it took some coaxing to get it to move from the mask to a metal pole. a pretty and fuzzy friend. (lady friend?)

What a cool-looking friend! Perhaps she was a bit chilly and needed to warm up before going about her day. She is a lady! Males wouldn't have the ovipositor you can see on her butt. She looks like a steely-blue woodwasp, Sirex juvencus, which is a type of horntail. :)

[anthropocenesketchbook]

While watching and drawing cultural/prescribed fire during #klamathtrex2019, we saw quite a few horntails drawn to the burn. They are wasps that lay their eggs in dead or dying trees, injecting a fungus along with their eggs. The fungus predigests the wood for the larvae. These drawings are from photo references after the fact. I’m not sure what species we were seeing, but fairly certain it was in the genus Urocerus. #goodfire #horntail #woodwasp #urocerus #klamathmountains https://www.instagram.com/p/B4iMPGwAKul/?igshid=1o7k53euq14jf