Unfortunately, this spectacular big wasp was dead. I noticed it in the middle of the Bill Holland trail near the Butterfly Meadow. I show it here only because it is not often we get the opportunity to see this beauty. This is a female, as evidenced by the very long ovipositor, the long black whip-like extension. It looks like a big stinger but it is not. These wasps CANNOT sting. They use that ovipositor to bore into trees where they lay their eggs on the larvae of the Pigeon Horntail wasp (another big wasp). It is rare to see M. macrurus males, but they are considerably smaller.

I wondered how this wasp came to be dead on the trail, and speculated that perhaps someone saw it on a tree, or on vegetation, saw that long ovipositor, mistook it for a stinger and decided this harmless creature was extremely dangerous. But who really knows.