Dangerous!

I returned to the forest I visited on friday this morning early, and I was rewarded with some lovely insects to photograph including the speckled yellow moth in extras.
My main blip however is a Giant ichneumon , or Sabre wasp Rhyssa persuasoria. This female is the largest species of ichneumon in Britian and at 10 -40mm one of the largest in Europe.
These ichneumons search for the larvae of Horntails or longhorn beetles in fallen timber and having located one they 'drill' into the wood using the long ovipositor and deposit an egg in the hapless bug deep in the timber. This egg then hatches into an ichneumon bug which slowly develops inside the larva.
Not nice bugs, with nasty habits, but beautiful and interesting none the less.
And if all these bugs give you the shudders I have added a shot of some very sweet mallard ducklings in extras.