Wood wasp (Urocerus gigas) |
So, here are the facts:
- Funnily, the golf that we were doing was pre-historic themed and when I first saw the wasp I thought it was one of those 2 metre long pre-historic dragonflies it was so big!
- After we had taken the photograph of it, we saw that it didn't have a sting. I guess if you're that big you don't really need one!
- Adding on to this, sometimes it does have something that looks like an absolutely huge sting but it's actually only females that do and its just a large ovipositor that they use for laying eggs in wood.
It was enormous, this post was as thick as my leg! |
- Well, to the people that discovered it apparently looked like a Horn which is why they granted it the name 'Horntail'. As well as the Giant Wood Wasp.
- They are found mostly in areas where there are pine or coniferous woodlands as that's where the females lay their eggs.
- They lay them in the wood and the larvae spend up to five years developing.
- They are found from May to October but most commonly they are found all of Spring from May to August inclusive.
- Now, I keep going on about how big they are without actually saying how big they are. Well, The Wildlife Trusts say that they are 7cm in length.
- Despite being big and scary looking with the 'fake' big sting, they are in fact harmless.
- They are one of the rarer species that I have covered with only about 100 records across the UK.
- Like the last species that I covered, they don't seem to be affected by how Northerly or Easterly you are, they're found rarely basically everywhere. Including Ireland.
Here are some links to some more information:
Hope you enjoyed,
Z.
Wow, I didn't realise they're so big! Amazing find Zach. - Tasha
ReplyDelete