Short Tailed Ichneumon Wasp

I found this little fellow today hanging around in my makeshift greenhouse. At first I thought he was a mayfly, or a lacewing, because of its delicate wings, but looking at What's That Bug?, I found out it's a Short Tailed Ichneumon.

The little bugger is a wasp, and a parasitic one at that. It lays eggs in caterpillars, that then slowly die while the larvae from the wasp continues to grow. And on top of that, while other Ichneumons are harmless to humans, this one packs a bit of a sting. Huh!

According to Wikipedia, "in the eighteenth century Ichneumon was regarded as an instance of the God-given balance in nature; in the nineteenth the possibility of using it as a form of biocontrol was briefly entertained. It was used as the symbol of the reformed Entomological Society of London in 1833". 

Says Valerie from Backyard Beasts: "Ichneumons are considered beneficial as their larvae are parasitic on other insects, especially caterpillars and grubs that are harmful to crops and garden plants. Each species of ichneumon is usually restricted to only a single, or at most a small group, of prey insects. Members of the genus Ophion generally lay their eggs on the grubs of scarab beetles, such as the June beetle and green June beetle. The adult ichneumons eat nectar, plant fluids, pollen and other sugary substances."

Good to know! I guess he/she is a welcome guest. Just don't sting me!

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Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Ichneumoidae
Genus: Ophion
Species: ?