pigeon horntail (Tremex columba) female ovipositing on hop hornbeam at Lake Meyer Park IA 653A5164
This pretty female pigeon horntail is another amazing "stingless" wasp.She sure does look intimidating though since she's about two inches long and has what appears to be a large dagger sticking out the end of her abdomen. She actually uses that dagger, or ovipositor, to drill a hole into dying or dead hardwood trees and then deposit an egg in the hole. She adds a wood-rotting fungus with the egg so her larva can eat the surrounding rotting wood plus the growing fungus when it hatches. The pigeon horntail larva can live inside the dead tree for up to three years before pupating and emerging now in late summer as a new adult. Adults like this one only consume flower nectar or tree sap. These primitive wasps do no damage to healthy trees and are an important cog in the forest's ecology.
pigeon horntail (Tremex columba) female ovipositing on hop hornbeam at Lake Meyer Park IA 653A5164
This pretty female pigeon horntail is another amazing "stingless" wasp.She sure does look intimidating though since she's about two inches long and has what appears to be a large dagger sticking out the end of her abdomen. She actually uses that dagger, or ovipositor, to drill a hole into dying or dead hardwood trees and then deposit an egg in the hole. She adds a wood-rotting fungus with the egg so her larva can eat the surrounding rotting wood plus the growing fungus when it hatches. The pigeon horntail larva can live inside the dead tree for up to three years before pupating and emerging now in late summer as a new adult. Adults like this one only consume flower nectar or tree sap. These primitive wasps do no damage to healthy trees and are an important cog in the forest's ecology.