I had this idea that the dead tree in my yard might be dead due to lightning damage. It has been dead awhile, but it stands because it is attached to two living trunks that I like. I went out last night to inspect it and found that there were some monstrous bugs crawling on it. Yipes! They were three inches plus a four inch ovipositor. I sent the pix off to a few friends as well as the bug guys at Clemson. It turns out that the bugs were giant female wasps that were laying eggs in the wood to kill other wood eating larvae. I've got an entire predatory ecosystem in the yard.
It's a bug eat bug world out there...
qv: Phil's Gallery of Bugs at Flickr
