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| I happened to visit a cemetery near my home in Brighton, Michigan on October 12, 2003, a couple of days after several large, dead trees had been cut down. On one of the newly sawed logs, I discovered an Ichneumon Fly. There are about 10,000 species of Ichneumon Flies world-wide, and I don't know the name of this one. Ichneumon Flies are known for having very long ovipositors with which they bore deeply into wood to deposit their eggs into or on the body of the larvae of wood-eating caterpillars. This particular one's ovipositor extended about 4 inches behind her body. |
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| Here are photographs showing her ovipositor fully extended as she inspects holes in the wood. While these holes look drilled by humans, they are actually the work of other insects, insects which might be good candidates for her eggs. You can click on these photos, if you wish to see larger verrsions. Use your BACK button to return to this page. |
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| She took her time moving from hole to hole and wasn't disturbed by me photographing her at close range. On occasion, she would flip her ovipositor over her head (second from left). But her usual behavior was to flip it over her head and then brace it behind her back legs (making a forward loop on 360 degrees!) and then slowing move it forward along the surface of the wood toward the hole (as shown in the third and fourth images). This brought her ovipositor into the wood perpendicular to the surface. It was amazing to watch. |
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| Sometimes her hind quarters would open up revealing a membrane (as shown in the first image below), but often this would remain closed as shown in the second image. Note that in the third and fourth image, the posture is different. I believe this posture is used when she is actively boring a hole in the wood rather than inspecting an existing one. |
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<< Here is perhaps the most descriptive image of her while boring a hole. Here's a not-so-hot image of her |
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doug@vizzle.com