Jewel Wasps
The magnificently colored wasps are not only beautiful insects, but they make dedicated mothers (in an admittedly disturbing manner). When a mother jewel wasp is ready to lay her egg she embarks on a truly disturbing journey. First, she hunts down a cockroach, stinging it in two specific places that essentially zombifies the helpless insect. The venomous stings ensure that the cockroach is temporarily paralyzed and its escape reflex is disabled before the mama wasp pulls the unlucky roach by its antenna into a burrow where it lays its egg on the cockroach’s abdomen. The mother from hell then fills in the burrow entrance, and, after three days, the egg hatches producing a jewel wasp larva. The larva immediately begins to feed on the still living zombified roach, chewing its way into the roach’s abdomen where it lives for another 8 days.
