ichneumon fly

Any of a large group of parasitic wasps. There are several thousand species in Europe, North America, and other regions. They have slender bodies, and the females have unusually long, curved ovipositors (egg-laying instruments) that can pierce several inches of wood. The eggs are laid in the eggs, larvae, or pupae of other insects, usually butterflies or moths. (Family Ichneumonidae.)

English zoologists revealed in 1999 that ichneumons that parasitize wood-boring grubs and therefore must penetrate layers of wood with their ovipositors, accumulate zinc and manganese from plant proteins, in the ovipositor, thus giving it a metallic strength. The long-tailed ichneumonid wasp Megarhyssa nortoni lays 20 eggs and takes an hour to drill each hole. Even after 20 hours of drilling its ovipositor is undamaged