Wednesday, November 19, 2008

A Parasitoid

Ophion Wasp

Another glass crawling insect of ours. The weather warmed up quite a bit this past Saturday and as a result there were a number of insects out and about; this critter was just one of them. I like the fact that these pests are so accommodating and make themselves available for such cool close up photos.

I believe this is an Ophion Wasp of the Ichneumonidae family. Ichneumon wasps are important parasitoids of other insects - insects that live in or on, and eventually kill, a larger host insect. Common hosts are beetles, moths and butterflies.

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