Crotch fruit from hell: Emerald cockroach wasp larvae
The emerald cockroach wasp stings a roach twice. Once the roach is incapacitated, the wasp proceeds to chew off half of each of the roach's antennae, after which it carefully feeds from exuding hemolymph. The wasp, which is too small to carry the roach, then leads the victim to the wasp's burrow, by pulling one of the roach's antennae in a manner similar to a leash. In the burrow, the wasp will lay one or two white eggs, about 2 mm long, between the roach's legs. It then exits and proceeds to fill in the burrow entrance with any surrounding debris, more to keep other predators and competitors out than to keep the roach in.
With its escape reflex disabled, the stung roach simply rests in the burrow as the wasp's egg hatches after about 3 days. The hatched larva lives and feeds for 4–5 days on the roach, then chews its way into its abdomen and proceeds to live as an endoparasitoid. Over a period of 8 days, the final-instar larva will consume the roach's internal organs, finally killing its host, and enters the pupal stage inside a cocoon in the roach's body. Eventually, the fully grown wasp emerges from the roach's body to begin its adult life. Development is faster in the warm season.
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | May 16, 2025 11:56 PM
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You are posting this nightmare fuel this close to bedtime? Thanks OP. It's actually a very pretty bug.....but still.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | May 15, 2025 12:34 AM
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this happened to me once - -
| by Anonymous | reply 4 | May 15, 2025 12:36 AM
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And this applies to my life...how, OP?
| by Anonymous | reply 7 | May 15, 2025 12:39 AM
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I guess little Jayden and Emma don’t seem so bad in comparison
| by Anonymous | reply 9 | May 15, 2025 12:40 AM
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My fat daughter would have done this to me , if my doctor hadn’t lured her out of me with a chicken fried steak.
The horrors of giving birth to a parasite.
| by Anonymous | reply 10 | May 15, 2025 12:40 AM
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Gives new meaning to the phrase Mommie Dearest.
| by Anonymous | reply 11 | May 15, 2025 12:44 AM
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I have never heard someone say so many wrong things, one after the other, consecutively, in a row
| by Anonymous | reply 12 | May 15, 2025 12:45 AM
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I’m reading AN IMMENSE WORLD, a great book about the animal kingdom. I just read this nightmare about this wasp. I hate roaches but this makes me feel a little bad for their awful end.
| by Anonymous | reply 13 | May 15, 2025 12:46 AM
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That is gangster as HELL, OP.
And as a denizen of the swampy Deep South with its intractable cockroach problem I am here for it.
| by Anonymous | reply 14 | May 15, 2025 12:59 AM
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No, OP/R13. If you had the misfortune to live where I do, you'd not only cheer on the wasp... you'd sell tickets to the show.
| by Anonymous | reply 15 | May 15, 2025 1:01 AM
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R14, I grew up in the deep south. We had Palmetto bugs, water bugs, and roaches. They were all roaches. We had so many variations that we found the need to try to distinguish between them with meaningless categories.
| by Anonymous | reply 16 | May 15, 2025 1:08 AM
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WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME, GOD?!!
| by Anonymous | reply 17 | May 15, 2025 1:13 AM
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[QUOTE]With its escape reflex disabled, the stung roach simply rests in the burrow
"Simply rests." You'd think the roach is taking a nap on posturepedic mattress.
| by Anonymous | reply 18 | May 15, 2025 1:54 AM
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The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
| by Anonymous | reply 19 | May 15, 2025 1:58 AM
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[Quote] And this applies to my life...how, OP?
This is happening to America right now.
| by Anonymous | reply 21 | May 15, 2025 2:06 AM
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Nature is so fascinating ... and horrifying.
| by Anonymous | reply 22 | May 15, 2025 4:01 PM
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That cockroach was cucked! Cuckroach!
| by Anonymous | reply 24 | May 16, 2025 2:59 AM
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Of all the predator/prey relationships in nature, yes.. the insect world is the true house of horrors.
| by Anonymous | reply 25 | May 16, 2025 3:04 AM
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Have you ever heard of insect politics? Neither have I. Insects... don't have politics. They're very... brutal. No compassion, no compromise. We can't trust the insect.
| by Anonymous | reply 26 | May 16, 2025 11:56 PM
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