Spotted this wasp through a window while having lunch the other day. Very busy with wedding plans at the moment and watching the weather every day! It's slowly warming up 1 degree a day but the wind is southerly and cold. However it's meant to turn to a northerly and be 28 degrees on Saturday - let's hope so :)
A great find Denise.
However you are not in any danger from that "stinger". unless you are a caterpillar !
I am pretty sure it is one of a very large family of insects called Ichneumons. The stinger is in fact an ovipositor ( an egg layer). These flies have very sensitive detectors in their antenna and can basically hear a grub or caterpillar inside rotten trees and wood. They use the ovipositor to tunnel down through the wood and lay their own egg in the grub. This is then used as a living host for the Ichneumon grub.
A bit gruesome, but a very interesting life cycle.
@markp Thanks Mark for all the information. I had googled this creature to try and identify it and came across that one but was not sure! So I stayed on the safe side and just called it a wasp :)
However you are not in any danger from that "stinger". unless you are a caterpillar !
I am pretty sure it is one of a very large family of insects called Ichneumons. The stinger is in fact an ovipositor ( an egg layer). These flies have very sensitive detectors in their antenna and can basically hear a grub or caterpillar inside rotten trees and wood. They use the ovipositor to tunnel down through the wood and lay their own egg in the grub. This is then used as a living host for the Ichneumon grub.
A bit gruesome, but a very interesting life cycle.