The Wisdom of Parasites. The Loom: A blog about life, past and future
The Wisdom of Parasites. The Loom: A blog about life, past and future
This is one of the creepiest parasite stories I’ve read. Quite interesting and somewhat cool.
As an adult, Ampulex compressa seems like your normal wasp, buzzing about and mating. But things get weird when it’s time for a female to lay an egg. She finds a cockroach to make her egg’s host, and proceeds to deliver two precise stings. The first she delivers to the roach’s mid-section, causing its front legs buckle. The brief paralysis caused by the first sting gives the wasp the luxury of time to deliver a more precise sting to the head.