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<\/a><\/p>\nSo, how do the two get together? The female GIW locates a PH larva already in the tree—the BugLady suspects that she picks up the vibrations of the PH, possibly using her antennae. Then she precision-drills into the tree (it may take 3 or 4 hours) and lays one very long, skinny egg on the PH larva, paralyzing it at the same time. When her young hatches out, dinner is served. It takes a number of weeks to finish the meal\/larval stage. The GIW pupates in the only home it has ever known and chews its way out of the tree the next summer.<\/p>\n
The BugLady is guessing that the white disc seen at the end of the abdomen is deployed to help \u201ccatch\u201d the ovipositor and make it more rigid—it\u2019s not present while she is laying eggs.<\/p>\n
[metaslider id=4822]<\/p>\n
There\u2019s competition for those choice PH larvae, even from related, non-drilling Ichneumons, which may lay their eggs in the GIW holes. Their young destroy the GIW eggs and then commandeer the meal.<\/p>\n
According to one source, the concept of parasitoids inflicting a slow death was very unsettling to some 19th century naturalists and theologians. In 1860, Darwin wrote, \u201cI cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars….\u201d<\/p>\n
\nThe Bug Lady<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To attract Giant Ichneumon Wasp<\/strong> two ingredients are necessary; first, a dead tree, and second, a distant GIW relative, a primitive wasp called a pigeon horntail. GIW larvae are parasitoids. They eat other insects, slowly, starting with non-essential structures and ending with essential organs, so that the host stays alive until the parasitoid is ready to pupate. In this case, the unfortunate victim is the larva of the pigeon horntail that is developing in a chamber in the rotting wood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1037,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[8],"tags":[91],"class_list":["post-4818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bug-of-the-week","tag-wasps"],"yoast_head":"\nField Station<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/field-station\/bug-of-the-week\/giant-ichneumon-wasp\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Giant Ichneumon Wasp (Family Ichneumonidae)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"To attract Giant Ichneumon Wasp two ingredients are necessary; first, a dead tree, and second, a distant GIW relative, a primitive wasp called a pigeon horntail. 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<\/a><\/p>\n