futurebird, 23 days ago

Every day is Leg Day with Dirhinus! This is a parasitoid wasp. They lay their eggs in the pupae of flies, often flies that are found on corpses (including human corpses, making them forensically significant.)

Wasps are distant cousins of ants, and you can see something of the ant her... and something of the alien. Why is her head like that?

Her big back legs have a retractable tarsus so they can be used as prongs when injecting an egg into a fly pupae.

Showing how the tarus of the back leg can retract into the big shiny club like "thighs" This is a Dirhinus found in East Africa. They are found all over the world.
Front view. A very alien face. Big bug eyes. chubby antennae. small dainty mandibles. The taco grove can also be seen from this angle.
Thomas Shahan photo of the dorsal view. Showing the grove in the front of the head like a taco shell. The antenae can be tucked away into this grove.