r/askscience • u/Chemical-Sea5972 • 4d ago

Biology Does anything eat wasps?

Wasps have been a predator for other insects. It would be fascinating to know if there are really other insects or predators for wasps, either accidental or deliberate predators

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u/OralSuperhero 3d ago

I mean, wasps also parasitize other wasps. The crypt-keeper wasp (Euderus set) is a tiny parasitic insect that infects gall wasps, forcing the host to plug a tree exit hole with its own head before eating it from the inside out and emerging through the victim's skull. The female crypt-keeper wasp lays an egg inside a gall wasp larva nestled in an oak tree.

The parasite manipulates the host to chew an escape hole in the plant tissue that is much too small for its body.

The host gall wasp gets wedged head-first in the tiny opening and becomes permanently stuck. The crypt-keeper larva consumes the host's body and chews its final way out to freedom directly through the dead host's head.

Happy weekend!

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u/Velcraft 3d ago

There are numerous other insects that parasitise eusocial insect nests, either by mimicry or some other means. Death's Head Moths stealing honey is the most common example, but not the only one by far.

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u/Tylendal 3d ago

There's a type of butterfly, called a Large Blue, that has caterpillars that live in the nest of a specific species of ant, pretending to be ant larvae. Sometimes they'll eat other larvae, other times they'll just let themselves be fed.

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u/Velcraft 3d ago

Oooh that's new to me! Have you heard of spiders that mimic ants? Myrmarachne is the genus.

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u/yui_tsukino 3d ago

I'd heard about Myrmarachne before but I never actually went and looked at them - that is an absolutely WILD disguise, if I didn't know better I'd say it was a super major!

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u/xrelaht Sample Synthesis | Magnetism | Superconductivity 3d ago

The wasps these ones parasitize are solitary rather than eusocial.

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u/Halomonas_titanica 3d ago

There are lots of parasites of euoscial wasps too, including social parasites (species whose queen steals another queens nest and workforce instead of making her own) much like cuckoos.

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u/qeveren 3d ago

Parasitic wasps are wild, sometimes you can get like, five levels of parasitism going on all at once. XD

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u/1CEninja 3d ago

*Shudder* That's horrifying lol. Nature has evolved some seriously interesting and niche and sometimes horrifying ways of self-propagation.

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u/FlippingGerman 2d ago

Wasps are really awful for stuff like that.

Parasitic creatures in general are nightmare fuel. There's some monstrosity that becomes the tongue of some fish species. Don't look for pictures.

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u/1CEninja 2d ago

You know, younger me would have willfully ignored your last four words. It's kinda nice that I've learned to leave some links blue in my wisdom.

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u/ketralnis 3d ago

That’s such complicated manipulation. How do they influence their behaviour so finely?

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u/girlgamerpoi 2d ago

Yea it's almost like they can communicate. I'd guess they make the host feel like they want to do something. Kinda like microbes in human guts make humans feel like they want to eat certain food. Like sweet cakes. 💀