Food from Wood

I love to photograph beautiful things and to show the beauty in places we not necessarily expect.

A walk that we had made lots of times before was, this time, very different. Piles of cut trees lay at the side of the track. The smell of pine was quite evident. I knew that freshly cut wood was attractive to a number of species. Before long, I found two species of Wood Wasp including the Giant Wood Wasp (below left). The female has a long ovipositor that she can unsheath. She uses it to saw cuts into the timber where she lays eggs. The resulting larvae feed on the wood for a number of years before emergence and the cycle continues. However that is not all that is going on......

I also found two species of Ichneumon wasps. They have a more sinister purpose.  They parasitise the Wood Wasps, laying their eggs into the developing larvae. If they are successful the Wood Wasp will provide the nourishment the Ichneumon need and will die. Below, on he right is the smaller of the two Ichneumons we say that day. The image below shows the Wasp at work searching for prey within the wood.