Slim-waisted. Wild Carrot Wasp, Gasteruption assectator, on Limnanthes douglasii, Douglas' Meadowfoam, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
These Wild Carrot Wasps are amazing in many ways. For one their form with that slim-waist is achieved without dieting. Then that ovipositor strikes fear into any insect larva that assumes it's safely hidden in a hollow plant stem. Wasp 'divines' they're where they are and then needles through the stem wall to stick it to them and to deposit eggs which, when hatched, will eat those larvae inside out. Charles Darwin remarked that this cruelty divested him of belief in a benign god.
The photo shows a female of the species on the left; take note of its ovipositor. The inset has a male, of course without an ovipositor. Both were seen on Limnanthes douglasii (www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/7347522440/in/photolis...).
Slim-waisted. Wild Carrot Wasp, Gasteruption assectator, on Limnanthes douglasii, Douglas' Meadowfoam, Hortus Botanicus, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
These Wild Carrot Wasps are amazing in many ways. For one their form with that slim-waist is achieved without dieting. Then that ovipositor strikes fear into any insect larva that assumes it's safely hidden in a hollow plant stem. Wasp 'divines' they're where they are and then needles through the stem wall to stick it to them and to deposit eggs which, when hatched, will eat those larvae inside out. Charles Darwin remarked that this cruelty divested him of belief in a benign god.
The photo shows a female of the species on the left; take note of its ovipositor. The inset has a male, of course without an ovipositor. Both were seen on Limnanthes douglasii (www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/7347522440/in/photolis...).