here's your creepy nature fact of the day

[queenlua]

a few weeks ago i was birding with a friend, and while we didn't see many birds—bad weather, bad time of year—we did see one bizarre/cool bit of insect interaction.

we were watching a spider making its web, when a big black flying arthropod slammed into it—full-body, full-force, knocking the spider clean out of the web, right?

we then found the spider on the ground, looking like it was spasming/flailing a bit, then saw the arthropod slam into it again—and this time, the arthropod stayed on top of the spider until the spider stopped moving.

"that's some fucked up red-in-tooth-and-claw shit," we said to ourselves, and moved on, but—

some later research indicates what we probably saw was a parasitic wasp? which is the most messed-up sci-fi spooky thing i've learned about in a while—basically, there's so much goddamn biomass in the form of arthropods roaming around, that it makes sense for species to evolve to exploit that biomass, and thus, you'll get a species of parasitic wasp that specifically lays its eggs in a specific species of spider (eventually killing the spider), and a different species of parasitic wasp that lays its eggs in some other species of spider...

freaky designer-drug hyper-targeted-bio-killer shit! but also, what an incredibly fascinating find? nature is so weird. i love birding because even if i dip on an owl i can learn new fucked-up things about insects and that's almost as cool lol

Comments

[helicoprion]

Oh oh! It gets meta! Some parasitic wasp species are so successful THEY HAVE THEIR OWN PARASITIC WASPS, often called hyperparasitoids! These dudes will go look for a host that's already been parasitized and lay eggs there for their offspring to eat the primary parasite's eggs and larvae!

Arthropods are up to so much weird shit all the time, it's fascinating

ETA: Also, was talking to a coworker who grew up on an orchard - he says since parasitic wasps are SO host-specific they're often available at specialty farm stores for highly tailored pest control? If you properly ID what's attacking your trees and you get the right wasp for the job, there's no collateral damage, no pesticides, and they'll probably even pollinate something before they leave

[queenlua]

holy SHIT are you SERIOUS. HYPERPARASATOIDS. that is incredible. god the world really is just a giant writhing mass of insect-y bois huh

(also lowkey mindblown by the customized pest control. how elegant! and unsettling! this bank rules, i invest one (1) weird insect fact and i get TWO back, that's 200% returns babeyyyyy)

[rachelmanija]

That is amazing. So is the parasitic wasp tackle.

I am SO GLAD that humans did not evolve from insects. Insect parasites are so utterly horrific.

[mellific]

A FLYING WASP TACKLE oh my god that's wildly cool??? My parasitoid wasp fun fact is that when California imported eucalypts en masse from Australia, they enjoyed like a hundred years of beautiful "none of our native insect enemies live here!" growth and then ALL the eucalyptus-feeding insects arrived to a tree buffet in the 80s so California imported a bunch of parasitoid wasps from Australia to counter them, which, apparently works & has no repercussions despite the extremely old-lady-who-swallowed-a-fly setup? (It is only medium effective because there are just. So Many Eucalyptus-Feeding Insects.)

[queenlua]

omg. that... makes so much sense, that that'd be a consequence of the whole chucking-trees-across-the-pacific thing, but never would've occurred to me on my own & AMAZING that the parastoid imports worked so well haha. we're up to THREE HUNDRED PERCENT returns in this comment section tyty very much for more INSECT FACTS

[cephy]

Ahhh parasitoids, yes, I love them :D Nature IS so weird! And it's wonderful. The ones that get me are the ones with super super long ovipositors that they drive THROUGH tree bark and wood once they figure out where their targets (beetle larvae or some such) are burrowing beneath the surface. The evolutionary journey it would've taken to get to that point is just wild to think about.

[queenlua]

THROUGH tree bark???? what the heck???

i very cautiously googled some photos of this & was NOT disappointed, tyty

[sushiflop]

Parasite insects are 1) so scary to think about 2) FUCKING DOPE AS HELL. The world of insects and arthropods and invertebrates is so fascinating and full of its own survival dramas. Once on vacation my family was at the beach and we observed a thrilling hunt taking place as one snail relentlessly and slowwwwly pursued the other. Isn't it great how observing more of the natural world makes it more and more fascinating? +_+

[queenlua]

WHAT. i had no idea cannibal snails were a thing??? googled this and i am ENTHRALLED, wow. ty for sharing your own invertebrate adventure!!!!

[sushiflop]

OMG omg. Treat yourself and look up cone snail hunting if you haven't. It'll give you nightmares in the best way.

[lavendre]

Eeee nature is crazy (I love it but also what the). This reminds me of a time I saw a grasshopper spring onto a Swallowtail butterfly at my favorite park last year. It startled me so bad I tried to perform a rescue mission, lol. I had no idea that grasshoppers will sometimes eat other insects (but butterflies?!)? My whole worldview shifted upon learning this. Insanity.

[queenlua]

awwwww omg. i think of grasshoppers as such chill nice lil guys... unsettling to think of one chowing down on a sweet lil butterfly tbh. i mean it's nature, i get it, but poor lil butterfly lol

[wolffyluna]

That sounds /so cool./ Parasitic wasps are awesome, but also terrifying.

(Unfortunately my only wasp facts aren't about parasitoid ones, but are instead about how fig wasp reproduction is Fucked Up.)

[queenlua]

wait i definitely want to hear about how fig wasp reproduction is Fucked Up tho. if you care to share lol

[wolffyluna]

So, fig wasps hatch from inside figs. The males hatch first, and go to find a female to mate with. Except they don't really have a wings, or any way to get of the fig, so they find unhatched female larva (who are usually from the same brood.) They mate with them, and then, as the gentlemen they are, help her chew through the gall she is inside of, and then chew and escape route out of the fig.

The female then flies off, and finds a new, unpollinated fig. She crawls through the opening of the fig flower, pollinating it and... ripping her wings and antennae off in the process. But that's fine. :) She doesn't need to leave the fig after she's laid her eggs :)

The plant detects the egg laying, and very helpfully produces galls for the eggs. But also, you may have heard that every time you eat a fig, you eat a wasp. This isn't true, for two reasons. One, most commercial figs aren't pollinated by wasps. Two... the fig digests the dead wasps as it ripens.

[helicoprion]

This is the best creepy wasp fact AND the best creepy plant fact, omg.

[queenlua]

+1, omg, this is HORRIFYING and AWESOME, i'm never gonna look at a fig the same way lol

[blotthis]

oh ! oh! this is so many good facts. mine are only half remembered about parasitic wasps that fight beetles and then block their brain controlled bodies up in holes like the crypt keeper and who maybe DIDN'T work as a pest control option in Hawaii but I have a book rec about it! great adaptations by our weird uncle Kenneth Catania is great fun and he actually talks about experimental process! also he makes a beetle snuff film for his students and a zombie arm to test electric eel attacks. seems like a guy of all time

[queenlua]

oh this book rec looks SUPERB. omg. ty very much; it's at the top of the book list!!!!

[blotthis]

I HOPE YOU LIKE

[kiestan]

/stores this in my stash of fun facts to pull out at opportune times/ this is SO cool even if it's going to appear in my dreams tonight

[airlock384]

oh boy, are we talking insane insect information?

here's one I only half-remembered but managed to find in documentary form:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ySwuQhruBo

(the title almost says it all really -- "Beautiful wasp zombifies cockroach")

ETA: I see now that someone beat me to it but hey, I've got a video of it--