Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Hymenoptera

Family: Ichneumonidae

Don't let the "wasp" name or the very long appendage scare you, the Norton's Giant Ichneumonid wasp will NOT sting you.

The long appendage that extends off the abdomen is actually an organ known as an ovipositor.  The female Norton's wasp can smell wood-eating fungus inside of coniferous trees.  The fungus is used by horntails to predigest wood pulp.  As the female walks over the conifer bark, she will smell the fungus, then, using her antennae, sense the vibration of the larval horntails within the tree.  The female will then insert the ovipositor into the tree until it can deposit the eggs into the burrow of the larval horntail.

The eggs hatch, then attach and bury themselves into the larvae.  They will then eat the live horntail larval host from the inside, ultimately causing death.  The wasp will then pupate inside the body of the host and emerge the following summer as an adult.