1 of 5000

|

Female Ichneumon Wasp Close up on Cucumber Trellis in the Driveway Vegetable Garden in Late July.

About the beautiful and beneficial Ichneumon Wasp: Ichneumons are much like their cousins, the stinging wasps, only slenderer and with longer antennae (usually at least half the length of the body, with 16 or more segments). The females usually have dramatically long ovipositors (a needlelike or filament-like appendage at the tip of the abdomen used for laying eggs) — it’s often longer than the entire body. Ichneumons are the largest family of any of the animals, with some 60,000 to 100,000 species worldwide. They are common and can be found in nearly all habitats. The name “ichneumon” comes from Greek words meaning “tracker” and “footprint,” and the females of these parasitic wasps certainly do hunt for, and track down, their various host species. The young of ichneumons are mostly internal parasites of the larvae in the families comprising the beetles; the butter...

Amy E. Fraser is a Fine Artist, Photographer and Baker. She creates in her home studio nestled in a beautiful wildflower meadow, surrounded by enchanting wildlife, deep in a magical fairy tale forest. When Amy is not drawing, painting or sculpting she can be found wandering the forest, photographing nature, tending to her garden or practicing the fascinating craft of Sourdough baking. Amy has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Parsons School of Design and a Masters of Arts and Liberal Studies from Dartmouth College. Fraser has exhibited her work throughout the United States and has pieces in the archives of The National Museum of Women In The Arts and The Smithsonian, Archives of American Art, both in Washington, D.C. Fraser's paintings,...