Ichneumon Fly Drawing

Although this bug image is listed as being among ichneumon flies, it is in no way related to the more common house fly. They are actually a type of parasitic wasp. There are believed to be over 60,000 species of these wasps.

This ichneumon fly drawing was labeled as a macrocentrus but I was unable to find that particular species among several scholarly websites. Regardless of the fact this isn’t a particularly well-documented member of the ichneumon family of insects, this drawing is particularly striking.

If you are wondering, yes those three long spikes at the bottom of the wasp are a form of stinger. They deposit a bit of poison along with the eggs of the insect into a host. Whew, I hope I never meet one of these at the wrong end of its stinger. Thankfully, that would seem unlikely as the ichneumon fly prefers Coleoptera, Hymenoptera and Lepidoptera larvae and pupae as hosts for their eggs.

This ichneumon fly drawing was from a large book about insects that was published in 1881.

Have fun with this fellow and be glad they don’t like using humans as their hosts.