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Emerald cockroach wasp - Reproductive behavior and life cycle

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Re: Emerald cockroach wasp - Reproductive behavior and life cycle

#21

Post by rev087 »

Wow. When I was a kid I was fascinated by watching bugs for hours, I even kept (and fed by capturing mosquitoes) garden spiders with their eggs in a plastic box, just to watch the spiders catch the prey and the egg hatch those dozens of litltle spideys.

But the one mysterious bug that I knew nothing about was this one. My parents couldn't tell me what was it, nor it appeared in any of my books and magazines...but I was completelly fascinated to see it carrying roaches around at my grandma's front yard. At the time I thought the green fella was hypnotizing the roach then "riding" it to it's place for dinner.

You can't imagine how happy I am to finally learn the name of that bug and what in the world he did with the roaches, thank you!

Re: Emerald cockroach wasp - Reproductive behavior and life cycle

#22

Post by 51Cards »

borism wrote: post #15
phaedrus wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suppose you have two variations of a gene; one produces larvae that prefer the taste of a vital organ, and eat that one first. The other variation prefers the taste of a less important organ, eating that first and eating the important organ only when it has exhausted its preferred option. If the second one is on average 5% more likely to complete its growing before the roach dies and its food supply rots, the second…

Let's first start by verifying that there actually exists such behaviour - there are no citations for larvae lifecycle part in Wikipedia and I couldn't find any reference in papers. Maybe larvae just consumes a little of every organ it can get to. The whole story about it consuming non-essential organs first seems quite fishy - how many of those do cockroaches have anyway? Even if that's true, after eating away few o…

This would be the article you're looking for...

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1748-1090.1993....

You'll need a Wiley Online Library membership to read all of it.

Re: Emerald cockroach wasp - Reproductive behavior and life cycle

#25

Post by asmithmd1 »

thorsview wrote: post #14
Kliment wrote: post #2

With photo at: http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2006/02/02/the_wisdom_of_parasi...

The comment thread on this article is over 200 posts. Mostly a heated creationist vs evolunist debate, but there is some interesting reading in there. It is hard not to ponder how such a complex set of behaviors came to be through natural selection alone. However, one comment that I found particularly on point is posted below: "I have a suggestion for how this evolved. The initial sting to the cockroach would obvious…

Seriously? creationists want to claim that behavior as coming from the mind of their god? I think that would make me switch.

Re: Emerald cockroach wasp - Reproductive behavior and life cycle

#26

Post by paufernandez »

Okay, now that you know... just start counting the number of times other people discover this for the first time and feel the urge to post it either here or on Reddit. Not that I blame you at all, this is pretty amazing stuff...

... but my count is 5.

Re: Emerald cockroach wasp - Reproductive behavior and life cycle

#27

Post by Luyt »

This reminds me of phorid flies, the natural enemy of the fire ant. The larva of a phorid fly eats its way into the head of the ant, decapitates the ant by dissolving its neck with enzymes, then cocoons in the head. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_ant#Natural_predators

Nature is beatiful ;-)

Re: Emerald cockroach wasp - Reproductive behavior and life cycle

#28

Post by mokchuk_ »

po wrote: post #7
po wrote: post #6

Researchers believe that the wasp chews off the antenna to replenish fluids or possibly to regulate the amount of venom because too much could kill and too little would let the victim recover before the larva has grown. I don't understand either of those explanations. Do roach antenna have fluids in them? How does chopping off antenna regulate venom which is already in the roach's brain? Does anyone get this part?

OK this video (which is quite good) seems to answer it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-p_4mp-RtA&p=E330837E95B... The clipped antenna leaks roach blood. Now I'm off to bed for some sweet nightmares.

Wasps are amazing creatures. well over 100,000 species of them are parasites. Here's another complex insect parasite video involving caterpillars that stowaway in ants nests and the wasps that lay eggs in them, from Attenborough's Life in the Undergrowth BBC series: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GCo2uCLXvhk

Also other species hijack acorns growth to lay offspring within, and are then in turn preyed upon by other wasps: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzXccvoJThI&NR=1

Re: Emerald cockroach wasp - Reproductive behavior and life cycle

#29

Post by sliverstorm »

terrapinbear wrote: post #4

I, for one, welcome our new Emerald Cockroach Wasp overlords.

So long as their stingers remain unable to penetrate the human skull or spinal cord, we're safe. Once they figure out how to do that though, every man for himself!

Re: Emerald cockroach wasp - Reproductive behavior and life cycle

#30

Post by sliverstorm »

Luyt wrote: post #27

This reminds me of phorid flies, the natural enemy of the fire ant. The larva of a phorid fly eats its way into the head of the ant, decapitates the ant by dissolving its neck with enzymes, then cocoons in the head. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_ant#Natural_predators Nature is beatiful ;-)

The ant's first mistake was attaching it's head with a membrane...

Obviously ants are one of the most successful creatures in the world, but a membrane!? Wow.

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