Ichneumons are a diverse group of parasitic wasps. Female ichneumons lay their eggs on or in a living host, usually an insect or spider. When the larvae hatch, they begin to feed on the host, frequently eating it in such a way as to allow it to remain alive for as long as possible, permitting the larvae to complete their development. The host is literally eaten alive.

In 2019, a group of international entomologists suggested the name “Darwin wasps” for this family, in reference to a famous letter that Darwin wrote in 1860 to American botanist Asa Gray. He wrote: “I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of Caterpillars, or that a cat should play with mice.” (Darwin solved this vexing issue by saying that there is no solution. Nature is not cruel or evil, and does not exist to offer us moral lessons; it just exists.)

Gross as endoparasitism sounds, these wasps play an important role in regulating insect populations. This specimen was in my dining room … looking for caterpillars??