sphex pensylvanicus fan club

while it may be near impossible to differentiate between the different cuckoo wasps, all of them are equally awesome. being kleptoparasitic wasps, they will lay their eggs in a host animal and let the larvae eat through the host, killing the animal and feeding the larvae for a good amount of time. this particular species is widespread across the uk, but good luck trying to identify this one in particular......

the sabre wasp is a solitary giant ichneumonoid wasp native to the UK and North africa. with their intimidating size and body, its understandable to be terrified when finding these fellas in the wild, but rest assured like most other ichneumonoids they are non-aggresive and are probably just out looking for food, make sure to say hi next time you see one :)

these guys are big and intimidating but harmless :)

while these guys may look intimidating with their deep maroon abdomen colors, they cant sting at all! no sawflies can sting, but they do have these saw like appendages used to cut into trees where they lay their eggs. Birch sawfly larvae is almost impossible to differentiate from a normal caterpillar to the average person, but if you are reading this then i doubt you are. these guys are widespread throughout europe and siberia, so if you are in that area, search for some strange looking caterpillars and maybe they wont be caterpillars at all :)