XSworld

By XSworld

Does God exist?

You never know where the research on the background story of what you photograph will take you. This time I wanted to know something more about the Ichneumonidae wasp that I photographed as it was stretching on a flower. What I found out about this "cute" little parasitoid creature sent shivers down my spine!
With its long ovipositor, the female wasp lays the eggs inside a live host (could be a bee, grasshopper or a caterpillar). It also injects a substance that paralyzes but doesn't kill the host, so that the larvas can feed of fresh meat! There is much more cruelty to the story of this family of wasps, some species have developed behaviour that are just too much for my faint heart, so I'll stop here.
The observation of this badass insect a couple of centuries ago raised the question of the existence of a God creator and Darwin is quoted for saying:

"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.”

Poor Darwin will forever be associated with an insect that made him doubt, as it is now called the Darwin wasp!

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