Genus Netelia
I found this big-eyed beautiful orange wasp resting on the underside of a sunflower on
Antelope Island on a cool September morning. Female Ichneumon Wasps are parasites of
other insects, laying eggs on them with their ovipositor (that's the stinger-like object on the
end of the abdomen.) When the larvae hatch, they feed off the host, eventually killing them.
Kind of gruesome, but it's Mother Nature's way of balancing things out. © Carol Davis, 9-23-2009
Remember when you were a kid and you'd run from those strange wasps with the enormously
long "stinger," yet you knew instinctively it couldn't possibly be a stinger--it was just too long?
This wasp, from the genus Netelia, has a relatively short ovipositor and would probably only try
stinging if you were harassing it or holding it in your closed hand. Here's a good article
about the Ichneumon Wasp. © Carol Davis, September 23, 2009
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