here's your creepy nature fact of the day
Sep. 18th, 2023 02:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
queenluaa 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
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
no subject
Date: 2023-09-18 10:51 am (UTC)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
no subject
Date: 2023-09-18 10:59 am (UTC)(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)
no subject
Date: 2023-09-18 06:08 pm (UTC)I am SO GLAD that humans did not evolve from insects. Insect parasites are so utterly horrific.