The Deadly Manipulator: Parasitoid Wasp

Today is special. Today I walked into an anatomy lab for the sheer fascination I have with the deceased human body and general anatomy itself...and with me was one of the best people I know, who happened to be deathly disturbed/afraid of the deceased human body. My bad!!

So for this entry, I am inspired by the anatomy and weird-ness that is the parasitoid wasp. why so cool you ask??? well, first of all...not only do the various species of parasitoid wasps have the ability to "control" the mind of their future prey, they also plant their larvae inside the poor chump, thus creating a live, ticking time-bomb of sorts. Let's pick an example---Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga (OR just some specific species of wasp that is dangerous)

These wasps are creepy the adult wasps have the ability to first paralyze the spiders so that they can lay their egg on the abdomen of the spider. Then as the egg "hatches" the baby spiders suck on the spider's blood until it is ready to cacoon.

They then chemically manipulate spiders into spinning a web that the spider has never made before and sit motionlessly in the middle of the web. The larva molts and kills the spider (via poison) who sits helplessly in the middle of a foreign web it spun itself...and is sucks it dry. Afterwards the larva pupates in the cacoon and emerges an adult and finds another spide to start the whole cycle again!!

Here's the wikipedia page which holds a bit more info.

creepy little buggers eh?? kinda glad I'm human...