Adults are commonly 13–20 mm long.
Fine-art photographic collection
Stenichneumon culpator
A parasitoid wasp that survives winter hidden inside the abandoned tunnels of wood-boring beetles.
About this species
Stenichneumon culpator(Schrank, 1802)
Information reviewed15 July 2026
Stenichneumon culpator is a large ichneumon wasp of the Palaearctic region. Females parasitise moths and overwinter as adults beneath bark, frequently using old beetle galleries as insulated refuges.
Taxonomy
Animalia · Arthropoda · Insecta · Hymenoptera · Ichneumonidae · Ichneumoninae · Stenichneumon
Accepted taxon. · checked 2026-07-15
Europe across temperate AsiaBroad range and selected reference localities — not a complete occurrence map.
Europe across temperate Asia
Woodland, hedgerows and scrub containing moth hosts and dead timber.
Adults fly in warm months; fertilised females overwinter.
Adults take nectar; larvae develop inside moth hosts.
Solitary parasitoid.
What makes this species remarkable?
A fertilised female can spend the entire winter motionless in a narrow beetle tunnel beneath bark, emerging months later to search for hosts.
Her offspring develops at the expense of a moth larva or pupa, converting one hidden caterpillar into the body of a new wasp.
The sexes are visually coded: females carry a conspicuous white band on the antennae, a signal-like marking absent or very different in males.
Sources and scientific references
- GBIF — taxon record/search for Stenichneumon culpator
- Catalogue of Life — taxon search for Stenichneumon culpator
- Journal of Hymenoptera Research — overwintering ichneumon wasps in beetle galleries
- Wellcome Open Research — host records for British parasitoid wasps
- NatureSpot — Stenichneumon culpator identification and ecology