Weird Insect

In the past five years I've seen weird insects I never saw in Canada.

View large image During a hike I spotted this iridescent neon green thing with red legs. It was about 1.5 inches long.

I have no idea what it is. The photograph isn't the best: the thing kept jumping around and my camera has limits on its macro capabilities, but it will give you an idea what the bug looked like.

Update:

The insect has been identified. It's a Jewel Wasp, otherwise known as Ampulex Compressa.

It's a parasitic insect which uses cockroaches to nurture its larvae, killing it in the process. This makes the Jewel Wasp my favourite insect by default.

Adults consume nectar and sap, but don't sting humans. They hunt cockroaches, stinging them at specific points in the body (to paralyse the front legs), and then in the head (prompting the cockroach to groom itself continuously for 30 minutes, and then become docile and unresponsive.

The wasp then guides the cockroach like a dog on a leash, holding one of its antennae, to a suitable location where it lays its egg inside the cockroach. The larvae consumes the cockroach and pupates inside its shell, before "hatching" six weeks later.

That's so cool: a biological control for one of the worst nuisance insects on the planet.

← Older Posts · 早前 | →