Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Superfamily: Ichneumonoidea
Family: Ichneumonidae
Common name: Ichneumon wasps
Ichneumon wasps are important parasitoids of other insects, including the social wasp Vespula acadica. Common hosts are larvae and pupae of Coleoptera, Hymenoptera, and Lepidoptera. There are over 80,000 species occur worldwide and there are over 300 species in New Zealand with only 80 named.
The text below courtesy of Wikipedia
Ichneumon wasps differ from typical, aculeate wasps, which sting in defence and do not pass their eggs along the stinger (Aculeata: Vespoidea and Apoidea), in that the antennae have more segments; typically 16 or more, whereas the others have 13 or fewer. Female ichneumon wasps sometimes have an ovipositor longer than their body. Ovipositors and stingers are homologous structures; Ichneumons generally inject venom along with the egg, but only larger species, with relatively shorter ovipositors, use the ovipositor as a stinger in defence. Males do not possess stingers or ovipositors.
Some species of ichneumon wasps lay their eggs in the ground, but most inject them directly into a host's body, typically into a larva or pupa. Host information has been notably summed up by J.F. Aubert, et al.[
In some of the largest species, namely from the genera Megarhyssa and Rhyssa, both sexes will wander over the surfaces of logs and tree trunks, tapping with their antennae. Each sex does so for a different reason; females are searching for the scent of wood-boring larvae of the horntail wasps (hymenopteran family Siricidae) upon which to lay eggs; males are searching for emerging females with which to mate.
Upon sensing the vibrations emitted by a wood-boring host, the female wasp will drill her ovipositor into the substrate until it reaches the cavity wherein lies the host. She then injects an egg through the hollow tube into the body cavity. There, the egg will hatch and the resulting larva will devour its host before emergence. How a female is able to drill with her ovipositor into solid wood is still somewhat of a mystery, though metal (ionized manganese or zinc) is found in the extreme tip of some species' ovipositors. The adult insect, following pupation, is faced with the problem of extricating itself from tunnels of its host. Fortunately, the high metal concentrations are not limited to the female's ovipositor, as the mandibles of the adult are also hardened with metals and it uses these to chew itself out of the wood.
Species 1 unknown
Species 2 unknown
Next two photos are of unknown species of wasp
Genus Aucklandella, a member of Ichneumon wasps
Unkown species.
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
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