Backyard Zoology · 7 January 2021
2021-01-07T20:05:16+11:00
https://www.facebook.com/backyardzoology/posts/pfbid0293Rqgqidnn2FrDhnVuFzAtmcy4o8vi8adQjrJU5tBNKury7BmMST7J5pu6rgeqy5l

It's always about being in the right place at the right time and even though I haven't been posting this week - ummm, where did the first week of the new year go? - I've still been trying to get out amongst it despite the rain, the never ending ear piercing shriek of cicadas and various board games and snoozes. And yesterday I got stupidly lucky, not seeing anything rare or unusual but still getting to witness a strikingly beautiful, even if in a cartoonish kind of way, Total Bastard in action.

Yesterday I diverted from the cycleway I was on and into a patch of trees, following the sound of a Kookabubba and various other birds, but really hoping to come across something small and interesting. Now finding the smaller critters is becoming increasingly difficult because, well, um, old eyes 😂 Let me tell you, they just don't make them like they used to! And so I have to lean into bushes and shrubs and push my glasses either up onto my head or right down to the tip of my nose and move my head back and forth as if I'm adjusting my own focal length until something, anything comes into focus. That's why I have my own Matt who thankfully still has better eyes than me.

But this Braconid Wasp? I found this Total Bastard all on my lonesome 🙌 Luckily, it's a pretty striking looking creature and not overly teeny and just bright enough to 'pop' in the shadowy, damp location, and stood out on a branch that was just below face height. So basically, everything was in my favour and what a find it was! As I started to take some photos I noticed she was moving her striped butt, angling it down until it was almost touching the bark and sweeping it in occasional tight arcs and every now and then pulsing it up and down. I haven't seen the WAP video, but I assume the choreographed dance looks not unlike what I was watching.

I moved around to get a better angle and just as I did she flew up and away from the tree, circling back and dropping down and that's when I noticed her huge ovipositor! Ah! All of the movement suddenly made sense: she was laying eggs!!! I watched as she moved across the bark, paying particular attention to the pieces that were lifted slightly, letting her long antennas reach downwards and 'feel' their way across the surface. She walked around a bit more, not far, just a few steps this way and that, her face leaning downwards, obviously searching for something, before she lifted her abdomen back up into the air before arching it down and under her and plunging the ovipositor back into the branch to start laying eggs either IN or ON her unfortunate victim.

There's loads of species of these Braconid Wasps and she was likely laying her eggs on beetle larvae living just underneath the bark. The laying of the eggs doesn't kill the host but gives her own young something to feed on once the eggs hatch. Yes, a Total Bastard through and through but a beautiful and interesting one all the same, and you know what? That's what I really needed. So I guess it'll be me, the little creatures and their mysterious lives and my damn old eyes battling to see them for the rest of the week too. 

Braconid Wasp
Northern Illawarra