We found this insect, with a loooong backside appendage, lying dead on a sidewalk after a cold night. What is it?
Answer
Often confused for an ichneumon wasp, this is an American pelecinid wasp (“APW”) – the only species in its genus in North America. APWs are parasitoids of June bugs: the females insert their long ovipositors into the ground to deposit eggs on the beetles’ larvae. These wasps are active mid-summer to mid-autumn. Fun fact: the males are much less common than the females, which poses no problem for maintaining populations, because the female wasps can reproduce through parthenogenesis (reproduction without fertilization). For a look at a living APW, see this installation of This Week in the Woods from our archive.
This week’s contest winner was John Bruno