My wife and I usually exchange ongoing critter sightings around our little suburban “preserve.” Earlier this month, she called me out to see a rather unique one. Some kind of very large wasp was just hanging out on the trunk of one of our trees. “Very large” meaning body about 2 inches (5 cm) along with a “tail” that was another 4-5 inches (10-12 cm). My normal reaction to wasps or similar insects in our yard (recognizing some function as pollinators and predator control) is live and let live philosophy, but this one carried an additional dosage of “OH HELL NO!” Other than a one-time fascination with a large bald hornet nest that was in one of our trees some years ago (much to a neighbor’s displeasure – a separate story) that warranted at least a phone snapshot, I won’t go to any significant effort to photograph them. In fact, I don’t even have “wasp” as a keyword in my Lightroom Catalog.
We ID’d it as being a Long-tailed Giant Ichneumonid Wasp (Megarhyssa macrurus). A bigger bonus of this educational reveal – they do not sting, and that long “tail” is an ovipositor of this parasitic wasp species. I’ve certainly heard of parasitic wasps before, but never bothered to research them much. I knew they basically laid eggs where the larvae end up consuming other insect larvae/caterpillars as a host. And so the rabbit hole begins …
Charles Darwin – perhaps the original “Oh hell No!”
These insects, also nicknamed “Stump-stabbers,” seek out and can detect prey larvae using those big antennae, particularly sawflies that have burrowed into dead wood. We also happen to have a tree that died next to the one it was spotted on. They use the long “tail” (ovipositor) to drop eggs in the bored holes that then parasitize the larvae and eat them from the inside out.
Research yielded that Charles Darwin wrote in 1860 to a friend and well-known botanist, Asa Gray, in their banter on theistic evolution vs. natural selection. It would seem this particular wasp helped him solidify his reasoning behind any theistic design intents, which I found quite a bit of humorous trivia.
Darwin wrote in a letter1:
“I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I 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, or that a cat should play with mice.”
Later in the evening, I went back out with my “real camera” and trusty Nikkor 200mm macro lens that allows macro photography at a good working distance – a good fit for subjects like this. (!) (Side note: Why Nikon hasn’t come out with an updated version of this lens in over 30 years baffles me, but it still remains an amazing performer) I found the wasp on the dead tree near the bottom, with the tail inserted into the wood, pumping eggs in a creepy way that fully justified Charles Darwin’s sentiments.
Inspiration for the creatures in the movie “Alien”
This wasp hung out for about 2 days and then vanished. I managed to get a few photos, and I imagine now there is some primal predation going on inside our dead tree trunk. Some references indicate nothing will emerge until perhaps next summer. A couple of weeks pass, and I happen to stream a 2019 documentary on the making of and inspirations that led to the original Alien movie back in 1979. In the discussions about inspirations behind the development of the alien species and tapping into primal fears, guess what gets mentioned?! Parasitic wasps!
Apparently, it was something that really creeped out screenwriter Dan O’Bannon, which became part of the inspiration behind the creepy xenomorph species’ life-cycle in the films. Carl Zimmer, a well-known science writer who wrote a book on parasitic species2, was quoted in the doc about these insects and their unique method of survival. Zimmer also noted the Darwin connections and did a TED talk on one species (that does sting) in particular that preys on cockroaches.3
And apparently, I am pretty late in learning about the Alien connection to these creatures, as some Australian scientists have even gone as far as to propose a new species name for a particular parasitic wasp down-under after the film: Dolichogenidea xenomorph.
Full-circle conclusion
This little adventure in education on a single insect encounter has been a bit enlightening. My original ignorance-fueled gut reaction of “OH HELL NO!” led to a revelation that Charles Darwin likely had the same reaction – maybe even uttered the very same words (go ahead, prove me wrong! ). Despite the fascination of the species in the science realms and acknowledging everything in nature serves a purpose, it is also responsible for nightmares erupting into one of the most famous classic Sci-Fi horror movies of the last half-century. Right in our backyard.
Therefore, even after some basic self-education, I think my initial gut reaction is well-founded and appropriate!
- Darwin to Asa Gray Letter, Darwin Project, 1860 ↩︎
- Zimmer, Carl, Parasite Rex, 2000 ↩︎
- Parasite tales: the jewel wasp’s zombie slave, Carl Zimmer, TED-Ed ↩︎
Super images. I’ve only seen a ichneumon wasp once, but the photograph I took of one ovipositing is still the most-visited image on my blog.
Thanks Tom. For all I know, this may be the one and only that I’ll ever see. That’s cool you get a lot of visits to the one you photographed.
I hope you see others – happy holidays!
I was wondering if you had a moment of ethical dilemma, i.e. ‘should I destroy the eggs?’ Having never seen one and being fascinated by it I should think I’d let the eggs develop on their own, regardless of whether they are ‘good or bad’ for the locals.
Nah. I doubt I will see them emerge, I don’t know if they stay close to “home” or not, but I will probably be giving this stump the side eye for a while in spring. 🙂
Dang what an amazing TED talk. I so enjoy reading your blog posts because they are so educational for me. I always come here as a student knowing I will have learned some anmazing thing. Thank you for being my tracher!
I am only student as well Monte, only sharing what I learn from time to time. Thanks for the visit!
Very well done, Mark, both the photo and the narrative – but most of all, the fact that you allow your curiosity and wonder to lead you wherever they may take you. I should forward this to my friend Almuth, who lives in an apartment in Hannover, Germany. She lends a hand to a host of insects, mostly bees, that nest in cardboard tubes she puts out on her balcony, amidst a jungle of plants. She’s written about and photographed parasitic insects. The more you delve, the more amazing it all is….
Learning is a bonus, may not be very useful knowledge but knowledge regardless- haha. Thanks for stopping by Lynn.
These photos are wonderful, Mark, but somehow the words “fascinatingly grotesque” come to mind as I view them. It makes sense for a connection to “Aliens” and the primal fear it appears to evoke. Good post!
Not exactly the kind of thing you’d frame and put on a wall eh?
Creepy wasps are creepy… but the photos are great! (I agree about the 200mm Micro, the 105mm is way to short for insects).
We have the Tarantula Hawk here (also known as Pepsis Wasp). Not quite as big or scary looking, it’s actually quite beautiful. Reading about its reproduction cycle would have had me second guess any ideas of intelligent design and whatnot too. 😛
It includes, you may have guessed it, tarantulas being eaten from the inside out… except that the wasp paralyzes the tarantula with a painful sting that’s second only to that of the Bullet Ant — they’re not known to sting humans but in the rare event of being stung by one, the advice apparently is to drop down to the ground and scream, in an effort to not stumble into something and hurting oneself more seriously while blinded by the pain.
And I’m still hoping to get a nice picture of one, some day! 😀
I think I’ve heard of those as well as those ants – where I think a 400mm micro might be more welcomed!
First of all, the sharpness and clarity of that wasp photo is truly amazing!
Really fascinating to learn about them, as without that knowledge, like you, no way I would be getting close to a wasp with a tail that big that I would have assumed was a stinger. I sort of like the way Darwin thinks! The way nature works is truly amazing. Plus, when we delve into worlds smaller than ours we learn so much!
Thanks Howard. It’s likely the result of the very nice lens combined with some manual focus stacking, something an updated lens might help make easier. With your medical background, you might find the linked TED talk interesting (it’s about 7-8 min) about another kind that targets specific parts of its prey’s nervous system and brain. Creepy again, but amazing.
Wow! I watched the talk. The fact that we don’t know the what or how of that last injection is crazy. Can’t help but think that there’s still tons of insects and animals that make compounds we could synthesize and use in some way for good.