I. Attention getter: If your food was alive and could protect your children would you still eat it? A. Not a very sensible question I know, but in nature there is an insect that gets to make that decision. B. Introduction: Hello I am Elijah King and I would like to share some information about wasps, Voodoo wasps to be more precise. II. Intro to Wasps A. Wasp’s body is long and slender with a narrow waist, cylindrical legs and appears to be smooth-skinned and shiny. B. (Hand drawn) Diagram: A wasp like any insect has a body made up of three sections the head, thorax and abdomen. 1. Head: the brains of the operation a. Contains the mandibles (mouth) b. Antenna (sensory input) c. Compound eyes (very common in insects) d. Ocelli or simple eye 2. Thorax: does the heavy lifting a. Contains the forewings and hind wings b. Contains the three sets of legs that insects have c. Parts of the leg: foreleg, middle leg, hind leg, femur, tibia, tibal spur, tarsus, and tarsal claws. 3. Abdomen: protects the vital organs a. tergum: dorsal plate on abdomen b. Sternum: the breast bone c. Stinger: the weapon and way to transfer venom. C. Habits 1. Wasps are predators all they eat are other insects. a. caterpillars b. Flies c. Crickets d. And other bug sized creatures 2. They are generally a hiving species.
a. Meaning they normally have a queen, a nest with drones (workers) and then nurses (females who care for the young) 3. Wasps are very aggressive.
a. They will sting anything that gets near their hive multiple times. D. That is the basics of the wasp. III. Intro to Voodoo wasps A. Scientific name: Glytapanteles 1. They are a genus of endoparastiods (parasites that take over the brains of its host by venom or neurotoxin) 2. I’m just going to call them voodoo wasps because their scientific name can be a mouthful. B. Locations where they are found
1.They can be found in Central and North America C. How they differ from regular wasps
1. These wasps do not nest or hive they do their own survival
D. Reason why I will be talking about female wasps specifically. 1. There was not a lot of information out there about male voodoo wasps. 2. Natural even has a way that allows females of some species to clone themselves, so it not much of a let down if I don’t cover the males. 3. The female wasp is a lot more interesting anyway. IV. Interesting reproduction A. Stinging the host 1. First the female wasp will find a suitable host (lets say a caterpillar) 2. She will sting the caterpillar injecting it with her venom to immobilize it. B. Laying eggs
1. Now she will inject up to 80 of her fertilized eggs into said caterpillar. C. Bodyguard phase 1. The venom the wasp injected combined with the toxic the eggs inside of the caterpillar change it. 2. Turning this once easy going caterpillar into an aggressive and over protective creature. D. Death and birth 1. The worst part of this is that the larva that hatches from the eggs will eat the caterpillar from the inside out. 2. All while its alive and protecting the parasites inside of it. 3. When the larva are full they will find their way out of the caterpillar and the caterpillar will die as the larva cocoon around it to start their mature phase of life as a full-grown wasp. 4. And the cycle starts again, well with the females at least. V. Practical applications A. Why its so unique 1. There are other species of wasp that inject their eggs into insects but not wasps that control their hosts mind while it is carrying its eggs.
a. EX. Jewel wasp: paralyzes cockroaches for days and lets their eggs hatch and eat the cockroach until they are ready to come out as mature wasps B. Nonchemical pesticide 1. Since voodoo wasps are parasites to their own food sources they are a great way to solve the pest control problem without the use of chemicals. 2. The crops would not be affected at all since these wasps are predators. C. Natures pest control
1. They have been used, as nature’s pest control for centuries now there is no need to make them anything less. VI. Conclusion A. 2010
1. Scientists released a horde of Voodoo wasp to decimate the olive flies that had been destroying California’s olive groves. B. Size and noticeability
1. These insects are 1 to 2 millimeters long so they are pretty hard to find unless you’re looking. C. Will always balance out an ecosystem.
1. Voodoo wasps need their food source for all aspects of their survival so you can introduce many of them to an insect you would like to rid yourself of and the ones that cant be feed will die the others will feed off of or use them for reproduction D. The question 1. The question I asked you earlier would you eat your food if it was alive and could protect your children. 2. I’m not sure it would be unanimous for us, but for a creature like this wasp, it is the only option 3. Other wise its offspring would devour it whole while its alive 4. Any questions?
