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Roach morphs into a wasp (think Aliens)

Most of us have heard about parasitic organisms, and their symbiotic relationships. Here is a case of Parasitism. It's actually quite worth the near sci-fi read. The Ampulex compressa wasp has reverse engineered the cockroach and makes it into a zombie. It injects the cockroach with some sort of venom that allows it to "steer" the roach back to the roach's burrow, and then has it's way with it. The picture on the left is the head of a wasp coming out of the roach after having fed on it's insides.

If you don't believe me, read the story.

The larva grows inside the roach, devouring the organs of its host, for about eight days. It is then ready to weave itself a cocoon--which it makes within the roach as well. After four more weeks, the wasp grows to an adult. It breaks out of its cocoon, and out of the roach as well. Seeing a full-grown wasp crawl out of a roach suddenly makes those Alien movies look pretty derivative.

Where do you get more of these wasps?

Posted by yakuza at February 6, 2006 11:09 AM | TrackBack